Early career Dimbleby joined the BBC as a news reporter in
Bristol in the 1960s and has appeared in news programmes since 1962, early on co-presenting the televised version of the school quiz
Top of the Form, and was a reporter on the BBC's coverage of the
1964 general election with his father as linkman. Richard Dimbleby died the following year. On 24 July 1967, Dimbleby was one of seventy signatories to an advertisement in
The Times advocating the decriminalisation of
cannabis use, which had been written by campaigner
Stephen Abrams. An incident in 1969 led to Dimbleby, then freelance, being called in by the BBC's Director of Television. During U.S. President
Richard 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 was ''
Yesterday's Men (1971), a film which the BBC recognises "ridiculed" the Labour opposition and led to a major conflict between the Corporation and the Labour Party; Dimbleby had his name removed from the credits because of the concessions that were made. In 1974, he became the presenter of Panorama'', which had been presented by his father.
Coverage of elections Dimbleby anchored the BBC's overnight coverage of the
1979 general election, and continued in this role until the
2017 general election, for a total of
ten general elections. In addition to election coverage, he also hosted BBC
Budget specials, and was a presenter of the BBC early evening weekday current affairs series
Nationwide. During the same period (beginning in 1979), Dimbleby has also been the anchor for the BBC's
European Parliament election results programmes and in 2008 and 2012, anchored the BBC's coverage of the
US election night. Dimbleby was the main presenter of the BBC's political series
This Week Next Week (1984–88),
This Week Next Week was replaced in 1988 by the
On the Record, a political series presented until 1993 by his younger brother,
Jonathan Dimbleby. Meanwhile, he continued to work in documentaries, including
The White Tribe of Africa (1979), an award-winning four-part history of South Africa's
Afrikaans community and the rise of
apartheid,
An Ocean Apart (1988), an examination of the history of
Anglo-American relations, and
Rebellion! (1999), a history of Britain's troubled relations with
Zimbabwe. By this time, Dimbleby was established as the anchor for the BBC's coverage of events of national importance, such as the
State Opening of Parliament, the
Trooping the Colour, and the
National Service of Remembrance service at the
Cenotaph in
Whitehall. Dimbleby served as chairman of the BBC's Thursday evening topical debate programme
Question Time from 1994 until 2018. One of the most memorable moments from
Question Time was when Dimbleby accidentally referred to
Robin Cook as "Robin Cock", to which Cook responded by jokingly referring to Dimbleby as "David Bumblebee".
2000s In 1999, Dimbleby opened
2000 Today, the BBC's coverage of the millennium celebrations, from
Greenwich, England. as well as the state visit of
US President George W. Bush to the UK in 2003. In 2002, Dimbleby hosted the
Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II coverage. A profile by
Ben Summerskill for
The Observer in 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." David Dimbleby was chairman of the Dimbleby Newspaper Group, former publishers of the
Richmond and Twickenham Times, acquired by the
Newsquest Media Group in 2001 for a reported £12,000,000. There were reports in 2004 that Dimbleby was shortlisted for the
chairmanship of the BBC. However, the position was eventually awarded to
Michael Grade. Dimbleby was a contender for the chairmanship in the corporation's tumultuous period following 2001,
2010s Dimbleby hosted the third of three
televised election debates featuring the leaders of the three main political parties held in the run-up to the
2010 general election. On the night of the 2010 general election, Dimbleby hosted the BBC coverage, along with
Jeremy Vine,
Jeremy Paxman,
Nick Robinson, and
Emily Maitlis. Presenting from
BBC Television Centre Studio 1, he was an anchor, and involved in commentary contributions, guest interviews and introducing live outside broadcasts. In 2013, Dimbleby presented
Britain and the Sea and a year later, he presented
The European Union: In or Out. In 2015, Dimbleby hosted the first
BBC general election debate, in spite of the fact that neither
Prime Minister David Cameron nor
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg took part. Dimbleby hosted the
EU referendum results show on
BBC One,
BBC News and
BBC World News overnight on 23–24 June 2016, when the UK became the first and only country to vote to leave the
European Union. In this programme, he made the following quote to the country when the BBC released its forecast for a Leave win at 04:40
BST: On 20 April 2017, the BBC announced that Dimbleby would host their coverage of the
2017 general election, despite having previously said that the
2015 general election would be his last. On 17 June 2018, the BBC announced that Dimbleby would leave
Question Time after 25 years at the end of that year. On 7 December 2018, the BBC announced that
Fiona Bruce would take over presenting duties from January 2019. Since his retirement from
Question 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, Dimbleby presented an acclaimed series of podcasts on the life of media mogul
Rupert Murdoch entitled
The 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 the
phone 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 the
Iraq War. The series examined the events in the lead-up to the
2003 invasion asking whether it was justified at the time, and whether it could have been avoided. It also closely analysed the relationship between
George W. Bush and
Tony 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 the
state funeral of Queen Elizabeth II for the BBC, in particular for the committal service at
St George's Chapel, Windsor. In 2023 and 2024, he also continued his long standing role as BBC narrator of the
National Service of Remembrance at the
Cenotaph. In October 2022, Dimbleby stated that the BBC does not appropriately question the power of the
royal 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 the
Duchy of Cornwall does not pay
capital 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 state broadcasting. ==Personal life==