Early life and education Dimbleby was born near
Richmond, Surrey, the son of Gwendoline Mabel (Bolwell) and Frederick Jabez George Dimbleby (d. 1943), a journalist. He was educated at Glengorse Preparatory School in
Eastbourne, then at
The Mall School in
Twickenham, and finally at
Mill Hill School. He began his career in 1931 on the
Richmond and Twickenham Times, which his grandfather, Frederick William Dimbleby, had acquired in 1894. Dimbleby's father had been press officer for the Ministry of Labour under
David Lloyd George and held a position with the
Daily Mail on Fleet Street, but had fallen out over interwar views on fascism and instead joined the family firm. Dimbleby then worked as a news reporter on the
Southern Evening Echo in
Southampton, before joining the BBC as a radio news reporter in 1936 on a salary of £360 per annum. He went on to cover the first Royal tour of Canada, In 1938 he was the reporter who covered the infamous "
Peace in our Time" story when Chamberlain
returned from Munich. This was one of the first broadcasts on both radio and television.
War career Dimbleby was the BBC's first war correspondent. This was broadcast on radio only as television transmissions were closed down for the duration of the war. He accompanied the
British Expeditionary Force to France and made broadcasts from the front. He later covered the
battle of El Alamein and the Normandy beaches during the
D-Day landings. During the
Second World War, he flew on some twenty raids as an observer with
RAF Bomber Command, including a sortie on 16 January 1943 to
Berlin piloted by
Guy Gibson. On the raids he recorded commentary for broadcast the following day. He was one of the first journalists to experiment with unconventional outside broadcasts, such as when flying in a
de Havilland Mosquito accompanying a fighter aircraft raid on France, or being submerged in a diving suit. On 1 November 1944 he accompanied a "pathfinder" RAF mission of Lancasters and Halifaxes, dropping coloured flares onto central
Cologne to aid the following main bomb attack. On 25 March 1945 he accompanied a mission towing gliders over the Rhine, during which heavy losses were sustained. Such live broadcasts were not only dangerous, but had some potential to backfire. In April 1945, as the BBC's war correspondent, he accompanied the
British 11th Armoured Division to the liberation of the
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp making one of the first reports. His description of what he saw there was so graphic the BBC declined to broadcast his despatch for four days, relenting only when he threatened to resign. His report was originally broadcast on 19 April 1945. The full text of his broadcast, which included reference to the 40,000 Jewish prisoners held in the camp, is entitled: 5 years on: Richard Dimbleby’s BBC report on the liberation of Belsen concentration camp He described, in another broadcast, the wrecked interior of
Adolf Hitler's Reich Chancellery at the war's end.
Later broadcasting career When Dimbleby concluded his war correspondent work for the BBC he was earning £1000 a year. The BBC forbade any external directorships while on their permanent staff so technically he resigned, however, he thereafter remained a permanent freelance, greatly increasing his earnings. He acquired full control of his family's newspapers, buying out his uncle, Percy Dimbleby. He also obtained a three year contract to write film scripts for
Alexander Korda but this was never put to use. His first television broadcast was as a support to
Freddie Grisewood to cover the Victory Day celebrations on 7 June 1946, which role he had specifically requested to the head of the BBC,
Maurice Gorham. After the war, Dimbleby switched to television, eventually becoming the BBC's leading news commentator. He is perhaps best remembered as the commentator on a number of major public occasions, including the
coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and the funerals of
George VI,
John F. Kennedy and
Winston Churchill. He wrote a book about the coronation,
Elizabeth Our Queen, which was given free to many schoolchildren at the time. He also wrote a London crime novel,
Storm at the Hook, published in 1948. He oversaw the first live international broadcast, as part of the centenary celebration of the first telegram being sent between France and England. Using the same underwater cable in the Channel on 28 August Dimbleby broadcast from outside Calais town hall. Thereafter he took part in the first
Eurovision television relay in 1951 and appeared in the first live television broadcast from the
Soviet Union in 1961. He also introduced a special programme in July 1962 showing the first live television signal from the United States via the
Telstar satellite. In addition to heavyweight journalism, he took part in lighter sound radio programmes such as
Twenty Questions (as a panel member) and
Down Your Way (which he hosted). From 1955, he was the host of the flagship current affairs series
Panorama. This programme saw him use his journalistic skills to full advantage in conducting searching, but polite interviews with key figures of the day, while acting as an urbane presenter for the programme. He was able to maintain his reporting talents by visiting places like Berlin, standing
in front of the Brandenburg Gate a week before the
Berlin Wall was erected across it by the communist authorities of
East Germany. In 1958 Dimbleby was the commentator on the BBC's first ever broadcast from the
House of Lords. He made two return trips to Belsen at the BBC's request; firstly in the summer of 1959 as part of a documentary "After the Battle" following six correspondents in their previous footsteps; and in 1965, which also took in the huge nearby military camp at
Hohne by which time the Bergen memorial had been set up. Dimbleby's reputation was built upon his ability to describe events clearly yet with a sense of the drama and poetry of the many state occasions he covered. Examples included the lying-in-state of
George VI in
Westminster Hall, where he depicted the stillness of the guardsmen standing like statues at the four corners of the
catafalque, or the description of the drums at
Kennedy's funeral which, he said, "beat as the pulse of a man's heart." His commentary for the funeral of
Churchill in January 1965 was the last state event he commentated upon. To produce his commentaries, he carried out encyclopaedic research on all aspects of the venues of great events, their history and that of the ceremonies taking place, and the personalities involved. This was a necessary part of radio commentary, which transferred well to television coverage. He could also improvise extensively if there were delays in the schedule. His audience always felt that they were in "safe hands", especially in
Panorama programmes like the one dealing with the
Cuban Missile Crisis. Inevitably, because of his close association with establishment figures and royalty, some people criticised his "hushed tones" style of speaking at state occasions, claiming he was pompous. In an interview, he laughed off such attacks, explaining that even though he had to use a special microphone, which covered his mouth to obviate his speaking disrupting the solemn atmosphere, he still had to pitch his voice low to avoid his voice carrying. A more common touch was demonstrated in his friendly broadcasts like
Down Your Way where he met thousands of ordinary people in towns and villages, and the many trade unionists, politicians and industrialists etc. who appeared on
Panorama and other programmes. Dimbleby also showed stamina and imperturbability in marathon election night broadcasts which ran from 10pm, when the polls closed, until around 6 or 7am the following morning.
Controversy and comedy During his time with
Panorama, Dimbleby narrated the
spaghetti-tree hoax on 1 April 1957, as an
April Fool's Day joke. After commentating for half an hour on Elizabeth II's state visit in 1965 to
Germany, Dimbleby uttered the expletive, "
Jesus wept,"
unaware that the microphone was live, after discovering that the TV pictures had failed for all 30 minutes, meaning he would have to repeat the commentary. ==Private life and honours==