Former Hey Hey It’s Saturday star and radio personality John Blackman has died aged 76. Blackman had spent years battling an aggressive form of skin cancer that was first diagnosed in 2018. He said at the time he feared the carcinoma on his face, which eventually resulted in the removal of his jaw and its replacement with bone taken from his thigh, would end his career.
“To perform you have to look good, you have to sound good, you have to sound confident and be confident, and I just won’t be able to do that any more,” he said at the time of his diagnosis. Blackman’s death was first reported on Seven’s The Morning Show on Wednesday morning. The veteran broadcaster began his career on radio in 1969, but is best known for his long stint as the voiceover man on Hey Hey, It’s Saturday , where, among other things, he provided the voice of the puppet character Dickie Knee.
Blackman returned to radio in 2015 as a presenter on Magic FM. He had a benign brain tumour removed in 2008. More to come.
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