Editing Jonathan Dimbleby

{{short description|British television presenter and journalist (born 1944)}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name         = Jonathan Dimbleby
| image        = Jonathan_Dimbleby.JPG
| birth_date   = {{birth date and age|1944|07|31|df=y}}
| birth_place  = [[Aylesbury]], [[Buckinghamshire]], England
| caption      = Dimbleby in 2016
| occupation   = Writer, broadcaster
| years_active = 1969–present
| spouse       = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[Bel Mooney]]|1968|2006|end=divorced}}
* {{marriage|Jessica Ray|2007}}
}}
| children     = 4
| alma_mater   = [[Royal Agricultural University|Royal Agricultural College]]<br />[[University College London|University College, London]]
| parents      = [[Richard Dimbleby]]<br />Dilys Thomas
| relatives    = [[Dimbleby family]]
}}

'''Jonathan Dimbleby''' (born 31 July 1944) is a British presenter of [[current affairs (news format)|current affairs]] and political radio and television programmes, author and historian. He is the son of [[Richard Dimbleby]] and younger brother of television presenter [[David Dimbleby]].

==Education==
Dimbleby was educated at [[Charterhouse School|Charterhouse]], a boys' independent school in Surrey.<ref name="matthewman">{{cite web | url= https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/how-we-met-jonathan-dimbleby-and-bel-mooney-1480461.html | title= How we met: Jonathan Dimbleby and Bel Mooney | work=The Independent | first=Hester | last=Matthewman | date=24 January 1993 | access-date=23 November 2023}}</ref> He later studied farm management at the [[Royal Agricultural University|Royal Agricultural College]] and graduated in 1965.{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}} He then studied philosophy at [[University College London|University College, London]].<ref name="matthewman"/>  He was later elected an honorary fellow but resigned in 2015 in protest at the forced resignation of [[Tim Hunt]] as an honorary fellow.<ref>{{cite news |last=Meikle |first=James |title=Dimbleby resigns from UCL in protest at 'disgraceful' treatment of Sir Tim Hunt |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jun/30/jonathan-dimbleby-resigns-ucl-sir-tim-hunt |date=30 June 2015}}</ref>

In July 2007 he received an [[honorary degree]] from the [[University of Exeter]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.exeter.ac.uk/honorarygraduates/2007/11july07_afternoon.shtml |title=Wednesday 11 July 2007 afternoon ceremony – Jonathan Dimbleby LLD |publisher=Exeter University |accessdate=27 December 2010}}</ref> He is an Honorary Fellow of Bath Spa University (2006) and holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of the West of England (2018).{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

==TV and radio career==
[[File:Any Questions, Nexus Methodist Church, Bath.jpg|thumb|Dimbleby presenting an ''[[Any Questions?]]'' broadcast on 15 January 2016 at the Nexus Methodist Church, Bath, during the church's 200th anniversary year]]
[[File:BBC World Questions - Hungary.jpg|thumb|Dimbleby presenting a World Question broadcast from Budapest]]
Dimbleby began his career at the BBC in [[Bristol]] in 1969. In 1970 he joined ''[[The World at One]]'' as a reporter, where he also presented ''[[The World This Weekend]]''. In 1972 he joined ITV's flagship current affairs programme ''[[This Week (1956 TV programme)|This Week]]'' and over the following six years reported on crises in many parts of the world. His coverage of the 1973 Ethiopian famine, ''The Unknown Famine,'' was followed by TV and radio appeals which raised a record sum nationally and internationally. His report, for which he won the SFTA Richard Dimbleby Award, was used by the incoming regime to justify the overthrow of the Ethiopian Emperor [[Haile Selassie I|Haile Selassie]].<ref>{{citation |title=Evil Days: Thirty Years of War and Famine in Ethiopia |author=Alexander De Waal |publisher=Human Rights Watch |year=1991 |isbn=9781564320384 |page=58}}</ref>

In 1978 he wrote and presented the ITV series ''Jonathan Dimbleby in South America''. In 1979 he joined [[ITV Yorkshire|Yorkshire Television]], where he wrote and presented three ITV network series: ''Jonathan Dimbleby In Search of the American Dream'' (1976), ''The Bomb'' (1979), ''The Eagle and The Bear'' (1980) and ''The Cold War Game'' (1981). He also presented the ITV documentary series ''[[First Tuesday (documentary strand)|First Tuesday]]''. In 1985 he joined [[TV-am]] as presenter of ''Jonathan Dimbleby on Sunday''. In 1986 he returned to ITV as presenter of ''This Week''. 

In 1988 he joined the BBC to present the new flagship political programme ''[[On the Record (BBC TV series)|On the Record]]'' (1988–1993). He wrote, presented and co-produced two documentary series: ''The Last Governor'' (BBC1 1997) about the final five years of British rule in [[Hong Kong]], and ''[[Charles: The Private Man, the Public Role]]'' (ITV 1994), in which (the then) [[Charles, Prince of Wales|Prince Charles]] spoke about his first marriage and his relationship with [[Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall|Camilla Parker Bowles]],<ref>{{cite web |title=Prince vows to keep silent about his private life |first=Andrew |last=Alderson |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1327842/Prince-vows-to-keep-silent-about-his-private-life.html |access-date=2021-11-23 |website=www.telegraph.co.uk|date=25 March 2001 }}</ref> now his wife and Queen of the United Kingdom and Commonwealth Realms.

From 1994 to 2006 he presented ITV's political programme, ''[[Jonathan Dimbleby (TV series)|Jonathan Dimbleby]]''. He anchored ITV's general election coverage in 1997, 2001 and 2005. He wrote and presented ''Russia with Jonathan Dimbleby'' (BBC2, 2008), ''An African Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby'' (2010), and ''A South American Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby'' (2011). In 2013 he wrote and presented ''Churchill's Desert War'' (BBC2) based on his book, ''Destiny in The Desert''. In 2015 he wrote and presented the two-part series ''The BBC At War'' (BBC2).

From 1987 to June 2019 he presented ''[[Any Questions?]]'' on [[BBC Radio 4]]. He presented ''[[Any Answers?]]'' from 1989 to 2012.<ref name=who/><ref name="bbc-pr-aa">{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2012/anyanswershost.html |title=Jonathan Dimbleby hands Any Answers? baton to Anita Anand on Radio 4 |publisher=BBC Media Centre |date=23 May 2012 |access-date=11 August 2012}}</ref> From 2016 to 2019, he was the main presenter of the BBC World Service monthly series ''World Questions''.

In April 2020, Dimbleby wrote and presented the ITV documentary ''Return to Belsen with Jonathan Dimbleby'' about the [[Bergen-Belsen concentration camp]].

In 2022, following the death of Queen [[Elizabeth II]], Dimbleby wrote and presented the documentary ''Charles, the Monarch and the Man'', which aired on ITV on 13 September 2022.

==Other work==
Dimbleby wanted to be a farmer when he left school and worked on the Royal Farm, Windsor, trained as a professional [[showjumper]] and studied at the Royal Agricultural College (now University) at Cirencester. From 1993 until 2004 he ran an [[organic farm]] near [[Bath, Somerset|Bath]], Somerset.

He is a past president of [[Voluntary Service Overseas]] (VSO), of the [[Campaign to Protect Rural England]] (CPRE), of the [[Soil Association]] and of the [[RSPB]]. He is chair of the Richard Dimbleby Cancer Fund, the charity established in 1966 in memory of his father. He was chairman of the [[Index on Censorship]]'s Board of Trustees from 2008 until 2013, when he was succeeded by [[David Aaronovitch]].<ref>{{cite web |date=2013-03-21 |title=Winners – Index Awards 2013 |url=https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2013/03/winners-index-awards-2013/ |access-date=2021-11-23 |website=[[Index on Censorship]] |language=en-GB}}</ref> He is patron of several other charities.

==Family==
Dimbleby is the son of the [[Second World War]] war correspondent [[Richard Dimbleby]], who was later to become presenter of the BBC TV current affairs programme ''[[Panorama (TV series)|Panorama]]''. His elder brother [[David Dimbleby]] is also a commentator on current affairs and presenter of BBC programmes. Jonathan wrote a biography of his father in 1975.

Dimbleby married author, journalist, and broadcaster [[Bel Mooney]] in 1968.<ref name="who">{{cite web|title = DIMBLEBY, Jonathan|url = http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U13740|website = www.ukwhoswho.com|access-date = 2015-06-21}}</ref> They have two children: Kitty, a journalist; and Daniel, a television producer. In May 2003, Dimbleby began a relationship with the soprano [[Susan Chilcott]], with whom he lived until her death from breast cancer in September 2003. Later that year Dimbleby and Mooney separated, and in 2006 they were divorced.<ref name=telegraph-20080421>{{Cite web|title=Jonathan Dimbleby on his marriage break-up|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1896210/Jonathan-Dimbleby-on-his-marriage-break-up.html|access-date=2021-11-23|website=www.telegraph.co.uk|date=21 April 2008 }}</ref> In 2007 Dimbleby married Jessica Ray. They have two daughters, Daisy and Gwendolen, and live in [[Bristol]].

==Awards and honours==
*1974 [[Richard Dimbleby Award]], for outstanding contribution to factual television<ref name=who/>
*1996 Sony Radio Award for BBC Radio 4's Any Questions programme
*2013 [[Hessell-Tiltman Prize]], shortlist for ''Destiny in the Desert''<ref>{{cite news |last=Capon |first=Felicity |title=Keith Lowe awarded the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize for history |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9978862/Keith-Lowe-awarded-the-PEN-Hessell-Tiltman-Prize-for-history.html |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=8 April 2013 |access-date=7 June 2014}}</ref>

==Writing and other activities==
* ''Richard Dimbleby: A Biography'' (1975)
* ''The Palestinians'' (1978)
* ''The Prince of Wales: A Biography'' (1994)
* ''The Last Governor: [[Chris Patten]] and the Handover of Hong Kong'' (1997)
* ''Russia: A Journey to the Heart of a Land and Its People'' (2008).
* ''Destiny in the Desert: The Road to El Alamein'' (2012).
* ''The Battle of the Atlantic: How the Allies Won the War'' (2015)
* ''Barbarossa: How Hitler Lost the War'' (2021)
* ''Endgame 1944: How Stalin Won the War'' (2024)

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{commons category}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080601225409/http://www.dimblebys-russia.co.uk/ Dimbleby's ''Russia'' website]
* [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1336584/ ''Russia'' (BBC documentary) on IMDB]
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/people/presenters/jonathan-dimbleby/ Jonathan Dimbleby biography] at [[BBC Radio 4]]
* [http://www.indexoncensorship.org/ Index on Censorship]
* {{IMDb name|id=0227230|name=Jonathan Dimbleby}}
* [http://entretenimientoplus.com/television/sudamerica-a-traves-del-periodista-jonathan-dimbleby/ Dimbleby's South America adventure BBC] {{in lang|es}}
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01nts8p ''Churchill's Desert War: The Road to El Alamein'' (BBC documentary, 2012)]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dimbleby, Jonathan}}
[[Category:1944 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Alumni of the Royal Agricultural University]]
[[Category:Alumni of University College London]]
[[Category:British biographers]]
[[Category:British male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:British reporters and correspondents]]
[[Category:British radio presenters]]
[[Category:British television presenters]]
[[Category:Dimbleby family|Jonathan]]
[[Category:People educated at Charterhouse School]]
[[Category:People educated at St Edmund's School, Hindhead]]
[[Category:People from Aylesbury]]
[[Category:Presidents of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds]]