David Dimbleby (born 28 October 1938) is a
British BBC TV commentator and a presenter of
current affairs and
political programmes, most notably the BBC's flagship political show
Question Time, and more recently, art,
architectural history and
history series.
Early life
Dimbleby was born in
Surrey and educated at two independent schools, the then Glengorse School in
Battle, East Sussex, and
Charterhouse School in
Godalming,
Surrey (where he was a contemporary of
Adam Raphael). After learning
French in
Paris and
Italian in
Perugia, he read
Philosophy, Politics and Economics at
Christ Church, Oxford and graduated with a third-class honours degree. While at Oxford he was President of the Christ Church
JCR, a member of the
Bullingdon Club - a socially exclusive student dining society - and editor of the student magazine,
Isis.
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. In 1974 he became presenter of
Panorama, which had been presented by his father,
Richard Dimbleby, and was involved in a variety of projects throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s, which combined his established role as presenter and interviewer with documentary making. Notable among these were the 1979
The White Tribe of Africa (an...
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