Vidal Sassoon: I fought facists in the East End

He is the godfather of modern hairdressing, famed for creating glamorous cuts.

But for a three years Vidal Sassoon preferred a knuckle duster to scissors as he fought off fascists on the streets of post-war London.

The 80-year-old crimper to the stars, who now lives in Beverly Hills, grew up in a humble flat in Petticoat Lane, Whitechapel.

The area was ravaged by anti-Semitic thugs spurred on by the Nazi sympathiser Oswald Mosley. The story of how the young hairdresser's apprentice joined a band of Jewish former service personnel in the little-known 43 Group is told in a new BBC Radio 4 documentary. The programme is written and presented by historian Alan Dein, who found the group was so effective it virtually wiped the far-Right off the streets of Britain for two decades.

Mr Dein said: "Vidal was happy to tell us about his teenage years as he still believes very strongly in the principles of the 43 Group. It was formed by 43 former servicemen and women who were shocked to come home from the war and face fascist rhetoric and provocation on their doorsteps."

The programme tells how the group hunted fascists and beat them up. "Mosley's version of events was the Second World War had been a 'Jews' war' - the Jews had supposedly not fought but Jewish businessmen had made money out of it, which of course was nonsense," said Mr Dein.

"Around areas like Ridley Road in Dalston, the fascist rhetoric would be quite volatile and it would often spill into violence."

He said an emotional Sassoon told how a woman gave him shelter as he was chased by fascists in Kilburn, adding: "The woman told him that although she wasn't Jewish, she felt a duty of care towards him as her husband had died fighting the Nazis in the war. It touched him greatly."

Sassoon recalled: "I was proud to be involved. It was disgusting that having just fought a war against Nazism, home-grown fascists-were allowed to start reorganising. Something had to be done." In 1948, Sassoon left London to fight in the Arab-Israeli war but returned to complete his training and went on to find huge success.