David Dimbleby

David Dimbleby(born 28 October 1938) is an English journalist and former presenter ofcurrent affairsand political programmes, best known for having presented the BBC topical debate programmeQuestion Time.He is the son of broadcasterRichard Dimblebyand elder brother ofJonathan Dimbleby,of theDimbleby family.Long involved in the coverage of national events, Dimbleby hosted the BBC Election Night coverage from1979to2017,as well as United States presidential elections on the BBC until 2016.He has also presented and narrated documentary series on architecture and history.

David Dimbleby
Dimbleby in 2007
Born	(1938-10-28)28 October 1938 Surrey,England
Education	Charterhouse School
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford
Occupation(s)	Television presenter, journalist, political commentator
Years active	1962–present
Employer	BBC
Known for	BBCQuestion TimePresenter BBC UK General Election Night Anchor/Commentator BBC National Events Anchor/Commentator
Spouses	Josceline Gaskell ​ ​ (m.1967;div.1993)​ Belinda Giles ​ (m.2000)​
Children	4; includingHenryandKate
Parent(s)	Richard Dimbleby Dilys Thomas
Relatives	Dimbleby family

Early life and education

Dimbleby was born inSurrey,the son of the journalist andSecond World Warwar correspondentRichard Dimbleby,by his marriage to Dilys Thomas, from Wales. His younger brother isJonathan Dimbleby,also a television current affairs presenter.David Dimbleby was educated at two independent schools, theGlengorse SchoolinBattle, East Sussex,andCharterhouseinGodalming,Surrey, where he was a contemporary of the journalistAdam Raphael.The two younger Dimblebys both made their television débuts in the 1950s in the BBC's first holiday programmePassport,at a time when the whole family would visit resorts in Switzerland orBrittany.A holiday programme for the home counties, calledNo Passport,was also broadcast.

After learning French in Paris and Italian inPerugia,Dimbleby readPhilosophy, politics and economicsatChrist Church, Oxfordand graduated with a third-class degree. While at Oxford he was President of the Christ ChurchJunior Common Room,a member of theBullingdon Club– a socially exclusive student dining and drinking society – and also editor of the student magazineIsis.

Career

Early career

Dimbleby joined the BBC as a news reporter inBristolin the 1960s and has appeared in news programmes since 1962, early on co-presenting the televised version of the school quizTop of the Form,and was a reporter on the BBC's coverage of the1964 general electionwith his father as linkman.Richard Dimbleby died the following year.

On 24 July 1967, Dimbleby was one of seventy signatories to an advertisement inThe Timesadvocating the decriminalisation ofcannabisuse, which had been written by campaignerStephen Abrams.An incident in 1969 led to Dimbleby, then freelance, being called in by the BBC's Director of Television. During U.S. PresidentRichard Nixon's visit to the UK, a reference by Dimbleby to UK and US government heads' "expensively hired"press secretaries"whose job is to disguise the truth" was given much attention by the British press.

Dimbleby became involved in a number of projects that combined his established role as presenter and interviewer with documentary making. An early example of this wasYesterday's Men(1971), a film which the BBC recognises "ridiculed" the Labour opposition and led to a major conflict between the Corporation and theLabour Party;Dimbleby had his name removed from the credits because of the concessions that were made.In 1974, he became the presenter ofPanorama,which had been presented by his father.

Coverage of elections

Dimbleby anchored the BBC's overnight coverage of the1979 general election,and continued in this role until the2017 general election,for a total often general elections.In addition to election coverage, he also hosted BBCBudgetspecials, and was a presenter of the BBC early evening weekday current affairs seriesNationwide.During the same period (beginning in 1979), Dimbleby has also been the anchor for the BBC'sEuropean Parliament electionresults programmes and in 2008 and 2012, anchored the BBC's coverage of theUS electionnight.

Dimbleby was the main presenter of the BBC's political seriesThis Week Next Week(1984–88),broadcast on Sunday early afternoons, as a competitor to ITV's establishedWeekend Worldseries. As early as 1987, he was a contender for the position ofDirector-General of the BBC(losing out toMichael Checkland).This Week Next Weekwas replaced in 1988 by theOn the Record,a political series presented until 1993 by his younger brother,Jonathan Dimbleby.Meanwhile, he continued to work in documentaries, includingThe White Tribe of Africa(1979), an award-winning four-part history of South Africa'sAfrikaans communityand the rise ofapartheid,An Ocean Apart(1988), an examination of the history ofAnglo-American relations,andRebellion!(1999), a history of Britain's troubled relations withZimbabwe.

By this time, Dimbleby was established as the anchor for the BBC's coverage of events of national importance, such as theState Opening of Parliament,theTrooping the Colour,and theNational Service of Remembranceservice at theCenotaphinWhitehall.

Dimbleby served as chairman of the BBC's Thursday evening topical debate programmeQuestion Timefrom 1994 until 2018. One of the most memorable moments fromQuestion Timewas when Dimbleby accidentally referred toRobin Cookas "Robin Cock", to which Cook responded by jokingly referring to Dimbleby as "David Bumblebee".

2000s

In 1999, Dimbleby opened2000 Today,the BBC's coverage of the millennium celebrations, fromGreenwich,England.He commentated on the funerals ofDiana, Princess of Walesin 1997,Queen Elizabeth the Queen Motherin 2002and formerPrime MinisterMargaret Thatcherin 2013,as well as the state visit ofUS PresidentGeorge W. Bushto the UK in 2003. In 2002, Dimbleby hosted theGolden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth IIcoverage. A profile byBen SummerskillforThe Observerin 2001 quoted an unnamed former Cabinet Minister who had observed Dimbleby's career for many decades: "I suspect he has an almost medieval view, that the Queen governs through Parliament... There are a few quarrels among the subjects – over which he presides very capably – but they have very little to do with what Britain is really about."Dimbleby, though, has himself criticised what he sees as archaic elements of the State Opening of Parliament.

David Dimbleby was chairman of the Dimbleby Newspaper Group, former publishers of theRichmond and Twickenham Times,acquired by theNewsquest Media Groupin 2001 for a reported £12,000,000.

There were reports in 2004 that Dimbleby was shortlisted for thechairmanship of the BBC.However, the position was eventually awarded toMichael Grade.Dimbleby was a contender for the chairmanship in the corporation's tumultuous period following 2001,which went toGavyn Davies.He has instead remained, according to Mark Duguid for the BFI's screenonline website, best known for his "gravitas, journalistic integrity and consummate professionalism" and as "a paragon of impartiality"as a narrator and moderator, of British politics.

In 2005, he hosted a BBC One series,A Picture of Britain,celebrating British and Irish paintings, poetry, music and landscapes. In June 2007 he wrote and presented a follow-up, the BBC series,How We Built Britain,in which he explored the history of British architecture by visiting a region of Britain and its historic buildings each week. David Dimbleby also presented a new series onBBC One,Seven Ages of Britain.In early editions of the programme, he looked at theBayeux Tapestryand exhibits to do withThomas Becket.

On 12 November 2009, Dimbleby missed his firstQuestion Timein over fifteen years, having been taken to hospital as a precaution after being briefly knocked out by arearingbullockat his farm inSussex.

2010s

Dimbleby hosted the third of threetelevised election debatesfeaturing the leaders of the three main political parties held in the run-up to the2010 general election.On the night of the 2010 general election, Dimbleby hosted the BBC coverage, along withJeremy Vine,Jeremy Paxman,Nick Robinson,andEmily Maitlis.Presenting fromBBC Television CentreStudio 1, he was an anchor, and involved in commentary contributions, guest interviews and introducing live outside broadcasts. In 2013, Dimbleby presentedBritain and the Seaand a year later, he presentedThe European Union: In or Out.In 2015, Dimbleby hosted the firstBBCgeneral electiondebate, in spite of the fact that neitherPrime MinisterDavid CameronnorDeputy Prime MinisterNick Cleggtook part.

Dimbleby hosted theEU referendumresults show onBBC One,BBC NewsandBBC World Newsovernight on 23–24 June 2016, when the UK became the first and only country to vote to leave theEuropean Union.In this programme, he made the following quote to the country when the BBC released its forecast for a Leave win at 04:40BST:

Well, at twenty minutes to five we can now say the decision taken in 1975 by this country to join the Common Market has been reversed by this referendum to leave the EU. We are absolutely clear now that there is no way that the Remain side can win. It looks as if the gap is going to be something like 52 to 48...so a four point lead for leaving the EU, and that is the result of this referendum which has been preceded by weeks and months of argument and dispute and all the rest of it. The British people have spoken and the answer is: we're out!

On 20 April 2017, the BBC announced that Dimbleby would host their coverage of the2017 general election,despite having previously said that the2015 general electionwould be his last.On 17 June 2018, the BBC announced that Dimbleby would leaveQuestion Timeafter 25 years at the end of that year.On 7 December 2018, the BBC announced thatFiona Brucewould take over presenting duties from January 2019. Since his retirement fromQuestion Time,Dimbleby has presented occasional documentaries for the BBC.

Post-Question Time

In 2019, and in some of his first work outside the BBC for decades, he presented an acclaimed series of podcasts on the life of media mogulRupert MurdochentitledThe Sun King.This focused on various key moments in Murdoch's professional career such as his takeover of newspapers around the world,Fox News,his battles with print unions and thephone hacking scandal.It also attempts to examine Murdoch's personal motivations and his political influence.

In 2020, Dimbleby continued his foray into podcasting, presenting a series on the lead-up to theIraq War.The series examined the events in the lead-up to the2003 invasionasking whether it was justified at the time, and whether it could have been avoided. It also closely analysed the relationship betweenGeorge W. BushandTony Blair,with Blair being interviewed as part of the series.

In October 2020, Dimbleby said he was again considering putting his name forward for chairman of the BBC.

In September 2022, Dimbleby came out of retirement to commentate on thestate funeral of Queen Elizabeth IIfor the BBC, in particular for the committal service atSt George's Chapel, Windsor.In 2023 and 2024, he also continued his long standing role as BBC narrator of theNational Service of Remembranceat theCenotaph.

In October 2022, Dimbleby stated that the BBC does not appropriately question the power of theroyal family.He said that the BBC would not address controversial topics to do with the monarchy, such as its ability to change tax legislation, or the fact that theDuchy of Cornwalldoes not paycapital gains tax,and stated his disagreement that such matters were not examined. He also stated his shock over the amount of control the monarchy have over broadcasting covering them.

Personal life

Although the brothers presented election coverage on competing channels, when asked in an interview about rivalITV's plans to include a riverboat party with the likes ofKevin SpaceyandRichard Bransonin their 2005 election broadcast, Dimbleby commented, "They've got Jonathan Dimbleby, what do they need Kevin Spacey for?"

Dimbleby has three children with his first wife,Josceline Dimbleby,a cookery writer: Liza, an artist;Henry,a chef and co-founder of the fast-food chainLeon;andKate,a jazz and folk singer.

In 2000, Dimbleby married Belinda Giles, a granddaughter ofHerbrand Sackville, 9th Earl De La Warr,with whom he had a son, Fred, in February 1998.Dimbleby lives inFolkington,nearPolegate,East Sussex,with a second home inDartmouth, Devon.He is a supporter ofTranmere Rovers.

Honours

Dimbleby was made anhonorary graduateof theUniversity of Essexin 2005,and is the President of theInstitute for Citizenship.In 2019, he received the Special Recognition Award for his services to news and current affairs at theNational Television Awardsin London.

See also

• List of former BBC newsreaders and journalists
• List of longest-running British television presenters
• List of Have I Got News for You presenters
• List of Today programme guest editors
• List of alumni of Christ Church, Oxford
• List of University of Oxford people with PPE degrees
• List of Old Carthusians

External links

• David DimblebyatIMDb
• David Dimblebyat theBFI'sScreenonline
• AppearancesonC-SPAN