Jonathan Dimbleby

He decided to step down from its sister programme Any Answers? in 2012, which he presented for nearly 25 years, handing the baton to Anita Anand.

He took his degree in philosophy at University College, London and began his career as a television and radio reporter for BBC Bristol in 1969, moving on to Radio 4's The World at One in 1970 (where he also presented The World This Weekend). He joined Thames Television in 1972, as a reporter for ITV's This Week where he won BAFTA's Richard Dimbleby Award for his report on the Ethiopian famine of 1973.

In 1979 he joined Yorkshire TV where he wrote and presented The Eagle and The Bear and other series for the ITV network. Between 1982 and 1986 he presented and was associate producer of the ITV documentary series First Tuesday. For the BBC, he presented On The Record (1987-1992). From 1995 to 2006 he presented ITV’s new flagship weekly political programme, Jonathan Dimbleby, and anchored the 1997, 2001 and 2005 General Elections for ITV.

In 1994 he wrote, presented and co-produced Charles, The Private Man, The Public Role and published his book, The Prince of Wales: A Biography. In 1997, the BBC screened The Last Governor, his series on the final five years of British rule in Hong Kong and he published a book of the same name.

His documentaries about Ethiopia and Kosovo were shown by the ITV network in 1998 and 2000 respectively. More recently, he has fronted several documentary series on BBC television including Russia - A Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby (2008); An African Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby (2010); and A South American Journey with Jonathan Dimbleby (2011). His latest book, Destiny in the Desert: The Story Behind El Alamein (2012) inspired his television programme exploring the same battle (BBC Two, Nov 2012).  

He is a past President of the Soil Association and CPRE. He is currently President of the VSO (since 1997) and chairman of Index on Censorship (since 2008). He is also a trustee of Dimbleby Cancer Care.