Background
Modlyn was the son of a Jewish tailor and left school at 14.
Modlyn was the son of a Jewish tailor and left school at 14.
Modlyn worked extensively on radio and television, often as a "roving reporter". He worked as a proofreader"s assistant for the Daily Mail and then wrote for the South London Press and the Evening Standard. His first broadcast was Down Lambeth Way, a talks programme for Forces radio.
He was an outside broadcaster for the Jack de Manio early morning radio programme.
In the 1960s he did pilot shows for Tyne Tees television, including a Christmas Special. He cultivated an East End working-class image, together with an apparent lack of respect for the rich and famous.
His classic interview in this vein was with Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada, whom he ingenuously asked how many people he had murdered. Amin responded "You very cheeky man!" Modlyn was delighted by that, and adopted a theme song:
On LBC radio he presented Monty Modlyn at Large.
He also presented a series on LBC called Monty"s Public where he visited a different public house every week.
As well as pubs, Modlyn had a fondness for smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels, which he would consume on air each week during his Sunday evening phone-in show on LBC. In the summer of 1979 Jeremy Beadle approached LBC and told them to sack Modlyn and let him take over the show and he would give them a young audience.