Fred Dibnah has died :(((

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It seems odd to be genuinely upset about the death of an aged steeplejack, but Fred Dibnah died of cancer today.

He was the epitome of the plain-speaking working class northerner, yet he managed to make any number of TV series (after being featured in a documentary about his work twenty years ago) and was one of the last genuine old-fashioned enthusiasts. His final series, Made In Britain, will be broadcast in the spring.

― Markelby (Mark C), Saturday, 6 November 2004 17:03 (twenty years ago)

My dad's gonna be upset about this.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Saturday, 6 November 2004 17:05 (twenty years ago)

I'm slightly upset by the fact this only has two replies so far. I think Dibnah was enough to make someone proud to be English.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 6 November 2004 18:51 (twenty years ago)

I was saddened to hear this. He seemed like a decent upstanding hardworking bloke, unchanged by the passing of the years and the changes in technology that could be making people like him a thing of the past.

― ailsa (ailsa), Saturday, 6 November 2004 18:54 (twenty years ago)

Oh jesus, I just heard about this. I loved Fred, especially al the comments his friends used to make about his wealth. Am I imagining it, or did he have a wife who looked about 30 years his junior?

Also best accent ever.

― Steve.n. (sjkirk), Saturday, 6 November 2004 19:03 (twenty years ago)

RIP

fred dibnah

― RJG (RJG), Saturday, 6 November 2004 19:15 (twenty years ago)

He was really watchable and I found it easy to get enthused by the things he was enthusiastic about because of his manner. But he had a really annoying habit of talking over the people he was chatting to on his programmes and he was really unpleasantly misogynistic too. But he still made good telly. rip.

― beanz (beanz), Sunday, 7 November 2004 01:44 (twenty years ago)

What? When did this happen? How did I miss it?

Oh no.

― Masonic Laundry Boom (kate), Monday, 8 November 2004 12:36 (twenty years ago)

He has been seriously ill for the past few months, Kate (big Manchester Evening News stories). It is very sad. I will have to read the book of his my mum has at home - I thumbed it quite often as a child, but never got round to reading his insight on steeplejacking.

― 3underscore (___), Monday, 8 November 2004 13:11 (twenty years ago)

I've never seen Fred Dibnah, but he looks rather fake folk to me. Also I'm naturally rather amused by

He was the epitome of the plain-speaking working class northerner, yet he managed to make any number of TV series

This reminds me of the Jools Holland / Tom Jones edition of Hard Talk I saw the other day. Jools and Tom stood stiffly around a piano and derided as 'unreal' the new breed of pop stars who come up through TV talent shows, despite the fact that both of them have spent at least half their lives in TV studios. It's funny how electronics can make you 'real'.

― Momus (Momus), Monday, 8 November 2004 13:14 (twenty years ago)

you've never seen fred dibnah.

that is pretty strange, really.

― RJG (RJG), Monday, 8 November 2004 13:17 (twenty years ago)

They say that TV studio lighting makes you look like a corpse unless you wear as much tan make-up as Kilroy. I think Dibnah's picture shows that TV lighting only makes you look 'real' if you dress at least 50 years behind the times. I'm trying to imagine how Dibnah would have looked if he hadn't let TV groom him as a 'real person'. Perhaps he might have looked like a real real person; track suit, Honda Accord.

― Momus (Momus), Monday, 8 November 2004 13:22 (twenty years ago)

you don't know what you're talking about, again.

― RJG (RJG), Monday, 8 November 2004 13:23 (twenty years ago)

That's true. We have fellows like that on German TV, though. They're swinging their steins and singing patriotic songs in a line in an Alpine landscape. They always look like they're about to invade Poland.

― Momus (Momus), Monday, 8 November 2004 13:25 (twenty years ago)

as long as you know.

― RJG (RJG), Monday, 8 November 2004 13:26 (twenty years ago)

It's called semiology. You don't need to have watched Fred Dibnah to know all about him.

― Momus (Momus), Monday, 8 November 2004 13:27 (twenty years ago)

Maybe I'm wrong and he went through months of tv presenter college and is just a media studies student in a very good disguise, but I got the impression he was totally unreconstructed - hence his inability to conduct an interview without making it clear he knew more about the subject than the interviewee, his shamelessly outdated views on marriage and his engaging passion for an unfashionable subject which he just lived long enough to see come into fashion again (partly owing to his presence on tv).

― beanz (beanz), Monday, 8 November 2004 14:18 (twenty years ago)

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