David 'Kid' Jensen on Private Passions with Michael Berkeley 3rd January 2021

Michael Berkeley talks to disc jockey David ‘Kid’ Jensen about his career in pop music and his lifelong love of classical music.

In 1968 David Jensen left his native Canada to become the youngest member of Radio Luxembourg’s original ‘all live’ line up. He was just 18 – hence his enduring nickname, ‘Kid’. Since then he’s never been off the air, working at Radio 1, Radio 2, Capital Radio, Heart, and picking up five Gold Sony Awards along the way. And for many people of a certain age his appearances with John Peel on Top of the Pops were the highlight of their week.

David tells Michael about his first job in radio, at the age of just 16, playing classical music on a radio station in his native British Colombia and he chooses music by Dvorak that reminds him of that time.

His passion for opera is reflected in arias by Italian composers and a contemporary Icelandic composer, in honour of his Icelandic wife, Gudrun, and their happy marriage of 45 years.

In 2013 David was diagnosed with Parkinson’s and he talks movingly about the challenges of living with the disease and the determination and optimism with which he has faced it.
And he shares memories of practical jokes at Radio 1; holidays with Paul and Linda McCartney; football matches with The Rolling Stones; and how Billy Bragg helped launch his career by delivering a curry to David and John Peel at Broadcasting House.

Producer: Jane Greenwood

A Loftus Media production for BBC Radio 3