Alan "Fluff" Freeman was a well-known disc jockey and radio personality in the United Kingdom for 40 years.
Born and educated in Melbourne, after leaving school he worked as an assistant paymaster/accountant for one of Australia's largest timber companies. Freeman originally wanted to be an opera singer, but decided his voice was not strong enough. In 1952 he was invited to audition as a radio announcer and commenced working for 7LA known as the teenager's station. Freeman's varied duties included that of continuity announcer; presenter of musical programmes incorporating opera, ballet and classical music; DJ for the top 100; news reader; quiz master and commercials reader. After moving to radio station 3KZ in Melbourne, in 1957 he took an agreed nine-month trip around the world with the verbal promise to return to Melbourne by January 1958. He got to London, and on deciding to stay wrote numerous letters of delay, and later apology, to his former Melbourne employer. Freeman started his British career as a summer relief disc jockey on Radio Luxembourg, and continued to present late-evening programmes on the station until the early 1970s. In 1961 he moved to the BBC. A year later he introduced Pick of the Pops fronting it until 1972. At the same time, he was one of the original team of presenters of BBC TV's Top of the Pops. He returned to the BBC on BBC Radio 2, taking Pick of the Pops back to its home from 1997 until 2000. He eventually handed Pick of the Pops over to DJ Dale Winton. He was awarded the MBE in 1998. In May 2000 he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement award at the Sony Radio Academy Awards. In March 1994 Freeman revealed on television that he had become celibate in 1981, but had previously been bisexual. In his later years, Freeman suffered from severe arthritis and asthma from a 60-a-day smoking habit, and he used a Zimmer Frame or motorised wheelchair to get around. He lived at Brinsworth House, a retirement home for actors and performers run by the Entertainment Artistes Benevolent Fund, until his death in November 2006. Freeman died in his adopted London after a short illness. Freeman's distinctive presenting style included the frequent use of classical music stings between records, and many memorable catchphrases such as 'Alright, pop pickers? Alright!' and 'Not 'arf!'. For all Freeman's supposed clichés and archetypes in his broadcasting style, he has always been regarded as a true original by his fellow broadcasters - when he appeared on John Peel's This Is Your Life, Peel said: "Fluff was the greatest out-and-out disc jockey of them all.".