Editing David Dimbleby (section)

===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 (quiz show)|Top of the Form]]'', and was a reporter on the BBC's coverage of the [[1964 United Kingdom general election|1964 general election]] with his father as linkman.<ref>{{cite AV media|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiUkyAS-fSs&&t=6m10s |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211221/QiUkyAS-fSs |archive-date=2021-12-21 |url-status=live|title=1964 General Election Part 1|date=20 July 2013|work=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref> 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]].<ref>Jonathon Green ''All Dressed Up: The Counterculture and the Sixties'', London: Pimlico ed., 1999, p.181-84</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1992-07-21 |title=Twenty-five years gone up in smoke |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/twentyfive-years-gone-up-in-smoke-1534696.html |first1=Dina|last1=Rabinovitch|first2=Emily|last2=Green|first3=Andrew|last3=Brown |access-date=2021-11-23 |website=The Independent |language=en}}</ref> 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 secretary|press secretaries]] "whose job is to disguise the truth" was given much attention by the British press.<ref name="Summerskill">{{Cite web|title=The Observer Profile: David Dimbleby &#124; Comment &#124; The Observer|url=https://www.theguardian.com/observer/comment/story/0,6903,539025,00.html|access-date=2021-11-23|website=www.theguardian.com}}</ref>

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 (TV programme)|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 (UK)|Labour Party]];<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/resources/bbcandgov/yesterdays_men.shtml "Yesterday's Men 1971"], The BBC Story (BBC website)</ref> Dimbleby had his name removed from the credits because of the concessions that were made.<ref>David Wilby [https://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/resources/bbcandgov/pdf/yesterday.pdf Yesterday's Men 1971"], BBC 2006</ref> In 1974, he became the presenter of ''[[Panorama (British TV programme)|Panorama]]'', which had been presented by his father.