David Dimbleby
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David Dimbleby CBE (born October 28, 1938) is a BBC TV commentator and presenter of current affairs and political programmes.
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[edit] Education
David Dimbleby was educated at Charterhouse School, a famous boys' public school in Godalming, Surrey in Southern England, and learned French in Paris and Italian in Perugia. He went on to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Christ Church, Oxford, where he edited the student magazine, Isis. While at Oxford he was also a member of the Bullingdon Club, a socially exclusive student dining society.
[edit] Career
He joined the BBC as a news reporter in Bristol in the 1960s and has appeared in news programmes since 1962. In 1974 he succeeded his father as presenter of Panorama and since 1994 has been chairman of Question Time, the BBC's flagship programme of topical debate. This is the role in which he is best known. One of the most memorable moments from Question Time was when Dimbleby accidentally referred to Robin Cook as "Robin Cock".
Dimbleby anchored his first Election Night results programme for the BBC in 1979, when he presented alongside Bob McKenzie, David Butler, Sir Robin Day, and Angela Rippon. He has anchored every general election results programme for the BBC since then: in 1983 and 1987 with Sir Robin Day and Peter Snow; in 1992 with Peter Snow and Peter Sissons; and in 1997, 2001 and 2005 with Peter Snow and Jeremy Paxman. He is also seen on budget specials.
Dimbleby has also covered outside broadcast events of national importance, such as the State Opening of Parliament, the Trooping the Colour, the Remembrance Day service at the Cenotaph in Whitehall, London, and visits of U.S. presidents. He commentated on the funerals of Diana, Princess of Wales in 1997 and Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in 2002, and the state visit of U.S. President George W. Bush to Britain the following year. In 1999, he opened BBC 2000 Today, the BBC's coverage of the millennium celebrations, from Greenwich, England.
In 2005, he hosted a major BBC One series, A Picture of Britain, celebrating British and Irish paintings, poetry, music, and landscapes. He also appeared on the current affairs programme Nationwide.
[edit] Family
He is the son of the famous World War II war correspondent Richard Dimbleby, who was later to become presenter of the BBC TV current affairs programme Panorama, and elder brother of Jonathan Dimbleby, also a current affairs commentator and presenter on both BBC and ITV programmes. He was a director of the Dimbleby Newspaper Group, former publishers of the Richmond and Twickenham Times, acquired by the Newsquest Media Group in 2001.
The younger Dimblebys made their television debuts in the BBC's first holiday travelogue programme in the 1950s, when the entire family would visit locations in Switzerland or Brittany, for example.
David has three children with his first wife, Josceline Dimbleby, cookery writer: Liza, artist; Henry, chef; and Kate, musician.
His son, Henry Dimbleby, is co-founder of the healthy fast food chain Leon.
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| Preceded by Peter Sissons |
Regular Host of Question Time 1994-present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
