Tom Edwards

The Pirate Radio Hall of Fame was sad to hear of the death of Tom Edwards at the age of 80. He was a long-serving and well-loved DJ on Radio City, then won more fans on Radio Caroline South and, after the Marine Offences Act made it illegal to broadcast from the sea, was a familiar voice - and face - on British radio and television for many years. Popular with the public and his colleagues, Tom's life and career did not always run smoothly as he revealed in his 2018 autobiography Is Anybody There?
 
Tom was born on 20th March 1945 in Norwich. His father, also called Tom, was the Managing Director of a wholesale grocers but died young, when his son was just five years old. On leaving school, Tom's mother persuaded him to join the family business but he quickly realised that it was not for him. He quit and, after completing a course in shorthand and touch typing, started writing for a local newspaper. He also applied for jobs with television companies and one of the smallest, Border TV, booked him to host their Beat in the Border programme. (Tom's autobiography refers to the show as Beat on the Border but online references give the other name.)

An early promotional photo of Tom from his time on Radio City, kindly provided by Mike Lewis.

These freelance jobs were a good start to his career but Tom needed a regular income. This came when he spotted an advert for a vacancy as a blue-coat at Pontin's holiday camp in Pakefield, close to him home in Norwich. He got the job and spent the summer season of 1964 looking after and entertaining the holiday-makers there. One of his duties was to play record requests over the tannoy system (“Radio Pontin”). Of course 1964 also saw the arrival of Radio Caroline, Britain's first offshore radio station, soon followed by others. At the end of the season Tom recorded one of his Radio Pontin shows and sent tapes to the various pirate broadcasters. Reg Calvert, the boss of Radio City, liked what he heard and offered Tom a try-out on his station.
 
This was not unusual. Reg often employed DJs on a trial basis. He usually paid them off after a couple of weeks with £5 and they weren't heard from again - but not in Tom's case. He stayed. He proved to be very popular and later became Radio City's Senior DJ. He was given the on-air nickname “Tatty Tom” because he was always so stylishly dressed but his colleagues also called him “mother” because of the way he looked after them.
 
Radio City was housed on Shivering Sands, a Second World War anti-aircraft installation based on a cluster of towers in the Thames estuary. With no outside backers, it was low-budget broadcasting using only the most basic of equipment but, thanks to the skill of Tom and his colleagues, it produced some excellent programmes. Many people who grew up in the south-east of England in the sixties remember Radio City with great affection.

Tom Edwards ending the Cobweb Corner oldies request show on a Sunday evening, followed by one of the many sponsored religious programmes which paid Radio City's bills (duration 1 minutes 14 seconds)
Tom Edwards reading the 7 o'clock news and closing Radio City for the night on 27th June 1966. Both this and the clip above are courtesy of Nick Widdows (duration 32 seconds)

Unfortunately in the summer of 1966 Radio City hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. During the early hours of 20th June Shivering Sands was boarded by a raiding party. The disc-jockeys were locked out of the studio and the station was silenced (more details here). Tom was on shore-leave at the time, in the house in Whitstable which he shared with City engineer Phil Perkins. Phil was out on the fort, Tom was at home. He could hear that the station was not broadcasting but had no way of knowing why. Then, on the morning of 22nd June, he woke up to find a cluster of journalists and a television news crew outside his front door. They brought the tragic news that Tom's boss, Reg Calvert, had been fatally shot. Tom was due to go back to the fort that day. He called the tender captain to ask if the trip was still going ahead. It was, so Tom returned to Shivering Sands, not knowing what he might find there, accompanied on the journey by a police Detective Superintendent. Their little boat was followed by a flotilla of vessels chartered by various Fleet Street reporters and ITN (Independent Television News).
 
They found the fort still occupied. The policeman interviewed various people and, satisfied that all was peaceful, left them to it. The raiding party eventually left on the evening of 26th June and Radio City returned to the air. With Reg dead, his widow Dorothy Calvert took over the running of the station but the raid and the shooting had given the Government the excuse they wanted to legislate against the offshore stations. The other fort-based operations, Radios Essex and 390, were summonsed under the Wireless Telegraphy Act. Initially City was left alone but, a few months later, the inevitable happened.

Tom, with his back to the camera, talking to the ITN crew on Shivering Sands. Also Ian MacRae in the white pullover and cook Luc Dunne in the darker one. Photographer unknown. Pic from Tom's own collection kindly provided by David Clayton.

On Wednesday 8th February 1967 a Southend court found Dorothy Calvert guilty of broadcasting without a license. She was fined £100. That night, at midnight, Radio City closed down.

Tom Edwards, Ian MacRae and Alan Clark during the final hour of Radio City (duration 2 minutes 33 seconds)
 
Tom and his colleagues close Radio City down for the final time. Both recordings kindly provided by James Pringle (duration 1 minute 53 seconds)

Dorothy Calvert was keen to find new jobs for “her boys” and approached Radio Caroline. They were interested and took on three of them. Paul Kramer was initially on the Caroline South ship, then sent to the North. Ian MacRae and Tom stayed in the south.

Tom Edwards sitting in for Johnnnie Walker on Radio Caroline South, 11th August 1967. This clip is edited from a recording shared by Hans Hendriks on The Offshore Radio Club Forum. Our thanks to him (duration 3 minutes 2 seconds)

Tom fitted in well on Caroline South and enjoyed his time there but the Marine Offences Bill, which would outlaw the pirates, was slowly making its way through Parliament. He would soon have to make a very big decision.
 
The deadline came on Monday 14th August 1967. The new law was going to come into effect at midnight. Caroline was determined to stay on the air. Johnnie Walker and Robbie Dale had said they would stay on but who would join them? Tom left on the tender, telling his colleagues he would return, but in the end decided he wasn't prepared to take the risk. It was the end of his pirate career but he was immediately taken on by the BBC in Norwich to read the local news and present the regional TV programme Look East. This led to a local radio show too, on the regional Radio 4 FM opt-out, which in turn led to him being offered a national spot. On 1st January 1968 he replaced Simon Dee on Midday Spin once a week, broadcast on both Radios 1 and 2.

A short clip of Tom Edwards on Radio 1 and 2's Midday Spin, date unknown. Thanks to Nick Widdows for the recording (duration 32 seconds)

After a few years Tom was offered a staff job at Radio 2 so left BBC East. By the end of the seventies he had become restless and decided it was time for a change. He approached a number of commercial television companies - and many of them snapped him up. Tom started working for HTV in Cardiff, ATV in Birmingham, Thames in London, Grampian in Aberdeen, Southern in Southampton ... and more, mainly doing continuity but also some presenting. He was working flat-out, travelling all over the country and often on air seven days a week. There are a number of clips on the TV Ark website. Continuity can be very stressful. Not only are you linking the programmes, you also have to be ready to leap in at a moment's notice if there is a technical hitch - something that happened far more frequently in those days. Tom found it very difficult to unwind after a shift and, as he disclosed in his autobiography, began to drink to help him sleep.

With old friends at Radio Caroline's 40th birthday party in March 2004. Left to right: Tom, Robbie Dale, Johnnie Walker, Roger Day, Spangles Muldoon and station founder Ronan O'Rahilly.

In 1988 Tom moved to America. He had been to Los Angeles on holiday and a number of people there had encouraged him to try his hand on US television. Sadly it didn't work out and, with no employment to occupy his time, his drinking got worse. In 1990 he returned to the UK and BBC East, as well as shows on BBC Radio Norfolk.
 
Unfortunately he was still drinking heavily. In 1992 he was let go by the BBC and his beloved mother died. Tom spiralled. Homeless and a drunk, he even spent some time in prison. On his release he was sleeping rough when he was found by a former colleague, a film editor called Des Cox. With the help of Cox and others, Tom checked into a clinic in Heckington, Lincolnshire. It was a long slow process but, under the care of the experts at the clinic, Tom sobered up. And he stayed sober.
 
When it was time to leave the clinic, he found a home in Heckington, a village he had grown to love. In January 1996, an article about Tom's journey to sobriety appeared in The Sunday Times. Old friends got in touch, including comedian Bob Monkhouse. He arranged for Tom to do the voice-overs for his television quiz show Wipeout. Tom went on to do five series of it.
 
There were occasional returns to radio too with programmes for BBC Radio Norfolk, Saga, Pirate BBC Essex and Boom Radio.

Tom Edwards, Andy Archer and Keith Skues reminiscing about the old offshore days on Pirates On Parade, BBC Radio Norfolk, 8th April 2014. This clip is taken from a recording shared on www.azanorak.com. Our thanks to Ray Robinson (duration 1 minute 15 seconds)
Two clips of Tom Edwards on Boom Radio, 28th March 2024, Radio Caroline 60th birthday. They are taken from a recording kindly provided by Hans Knot (duration 4 minutes 1 seconds)

Tom at Radio Caroline's 40th birthday party in March 2004.

Tom kept in touch with people on social media. Many of them were shocked to read on Facebook: “It is just gone midnight a moment I've waited for this 8th day of August 2025, an important day for me as it marks my 33 years of sobriety which I have posted with each year when this date comes around. I have always tried to be fair and truthful in explaining things .. some light banter .. some not. I fear that this will be the last time I post such as this in my 80th year. Back in 2023 I had intensive treatment for cancer. By all accounts it was a success. I got the certificate from the nurses and rang the bell three times. Months later my consultant wanted a PET scan done. In a general chat with my great GP back in Heckington I asked him what the consultant wanted to see me about. My GP's face went pale and told me the cancer has got into your bones Tom. I was more concerned at my doctors reaction than myself and the latest is from the consultant with his medical notes to me which I asked for the truth and not to lie. He didn't. He has advised an expected time line sadly of what is now just 5 to 9 months of my long life left. It's been a heavy load to carry on my shoulders. The Macmillan nurses, the GPs who have visited here at my new home near Lincoln City have been something else .. so caring and not a day doesn't go by without a visit or a telephone call. I apologise for this long message but I wanted to clear the air as to why I left Heckington. Many reasons but I am minutes away here from the medical help I will certainly need quite soon. I've had to adjust to this way of living alone .. which am more than happy with. I have close friends to call and believe me have found out who those true friends are. At present I am ok. I make a shopping trip each day. I won't name names but they know who they are and for that I am so very grateful. Please if you have some shrapnel in your pockets and see a Macmllan collecting box .. they are worth every single penny you could make also to the nursing officers at the local hospice where in time it looks I will eventually go there for a bit of respite. I thought so hard about posting this but lots of you have become fine Facebook folk .. some I have never met .. and I'll just end this with one of my favourite phrases "It is as it is"... xxx”.
 
Tom passed away at the hospice in Lincoln on the evening of 25th October 2025.

Other obituaries: cambsnews.co.uk, Offshore Echos, Radio London, Red Sands Radio.
 
With thanks to Is Anybody There? by Tom Edwards for much of the information on this page.