RICHARD DIMBLEBY. Born in Richmond-upon-Thames, London, England, 25 May 1913. Attended Mill Hill School, London. Married: Dilys in 1937; children: Jonathan, David, Nicholas and Sally. Began career with the family newspaper, The Richmond and Twickenham Times, 1931; subsequently worked for the Bournemouth Echo and as news editor for Advertisers Weekly, 1935-36; joined BBC Topical Talks department as one of the first radio news reporters, 1936; accompanied British Expeditionary Force to France as first BBC war correspondent, 1939; reported from front line in Middle East, East Africa, the Western Desert and Greece, 1939-42; flew 20 missions with RAF Bomber Command and was first reporter to enter Belsen concentration camp, 1945; after war became foremost commentator on state occasions, including coronation of Elizabeth II, 1953, and funeral of Winston Churchill, 1965; managing director, Dimbleby newspaper business, from 1954; presenter of BBC's Panorama, 1955-63. Officer of the Order of the British Empire, 1945; Commander of the Order of the British Empire, 1959. Died in London, England, 22 December 1965.

TELEVISION SERIES

1955-63 Panorama

RADIO

Twenty Questions; Down Your Way; Off the Record.

Richard Dimbleby was the personification of British television current affairs broadcasting in the 1950s and early 1960s and set the standard for succeeding generations of presenters on the network, by whom he was recognized as the virtual founder of broadcast journalism. After working on the editorial staff of several newspapers before joining the BBC as a radio news observer in 1936. When war broke out three years later, he became the Corporation's first war correspondent and as such, within the constraints of often stifling official censorship, brought the reality of warfare into homes throughout the length and breadth of Great Britain. Notably graphic broadcasts included despatches from the battlefield of El Alamein, from the beaches of Normandy during the D-Day landings, and a report sent back from an RAF bomber on a raid over Germany (in all he flew as an observer on some 20 missions). He was also the first radio reporter to reach the concentration camp at Belsen, from which he sent a moving account of what he saw, and the first to enter Berlin.

After the war, Dimbleby worked as a freelance broadcaster and made the switch to television, in time becoming the BBC's best-known commentator on current affairs and state events. Among the important state occasions he covered were the Coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953 and the funerals of John F. Kennedy and Sir Winston Churchill. The Coronation broadcast was a particular personal triumph, establishing Dimbleby as first choice as commentator on all state events and, incidentally, promoting television sales by some 50%. Other milestones in his career included his participation in 1951 in the first Eurovision television relay and, in 1961, his appearance in the first live television broadcast from the Soviet Union.

In 1955 Richard Dimbleby was selected as anchorman for the much-respected current affairs programme Panorama, and it is with this that his name is usually associated. Quizzing politicians of all colours with equal severity on behalf of the nation, he was praised by many as a defender of the public interest, and became almost synonymous with the BBC itself as a bastion of fairness and perspicuity in political debate. Under Dimbleby's direction, Panorama established itself as the current affairs programme par excellence, the weekly showing almost a political event itself, raising issues that Parliament hastened to deal with in order to show it was responsive to the electorate thus represented.

Viewers hung on the presenter's every word and besieged him with letters, begging him to use his evident influence to intervene personally in political issues of all kinds, from proposals for new roads to the Cuban missile crisis. One rare remark that did not go down so well was an infamous aside, "Jesus wept", which was unfortunately picked up by the microphone and prompted a stream of letters criticizing him for blasphemy.

Dimbleby did, though, also tackle lighter fare, and was much loved as chairman of the radio programme Twenty Questions and as presenter of the homely Down Your Way series, in which he sought out prominent members of a given locality and passed the time of day with them. His standing with the British listening and viewing public was officially honoured in 1945, when he was made an Officer of the British Empire, and again in 1959, when he was promoted to Companion of the British Empire.

Dimbleby's premature death from cancer at the age of 52, shortly after broadcasting to 350 million people on the state funeral of Winston Churchill, was regretted by millions of viewers, and subsequently the annual Richard Dimbleby lectures were established in his memory. These were not his only legacy, however, for his two sons, David and Jonathan, pursued similar careers in current affairs broadcasting and in their turn became two of the most familiar faces on British screens, earning reputations as fair but tough-minded interrogators of the political leaders of their generation. David Dimbleby emulated his father by, in 1974, becoming anchorman of Panorama, while Richard Dimbleby has occupied a similar role on such current affairs programmes as This Week and First Tuesday.

-David Pickering