Questions for David
QUESTION Time chairman David Dimbleby talks about his new book and TV series The Seven Ages Of Britain, his highs and lows on Question Time and his recent altercation with a bullock which left him hospital-bound.
LIKE a retired headmaster, David Dimbleby controls BBC's Question Time each week with a stern yet fair hand.
Vastly different in style from more ebullient political broadcasters such as Jeremy Paxman, the veteran broadcaster and writer has been chairing the show for 16 years.
Yet the 71-year-old confesses that he gets nervous before every live programme, whether it be anchoring the election – which he will be doing this year – or presenting Question Time.
"I live on them (his nerves). I feel that unless I feel a bit nervous it's not going to work, but if I do feel a bit nervous it will work. It's a theatrical thing and I think actors and politicians have the same thing," he says.
"With Question Time, on the afternoon of the day, I get this slight feeling of 'I wish I was somewhere else'."
He calms his nerves away from work by going for long walks near his 1.5 million Sussex farm which he shares with his wife, Belinda Giles, and their 11-year-old son, Fred. He has three other children with his first wife, the cookery writer Josceline Dimbleby.
However, life on the farm isn't always as tranquil as it might be. Last year he missed Question Time for the first time in 15 years because he was charged by his wife's bullock, which knocked him out.
"It charged me while I was holding a fence trying to get it into a gateway. I just fell back on my head and was knocked out so I know very little about it."
He had stitches in his skull and was in hospital for three days with concussion, which forced him off Question Time that week.
"It was a shock lying in bed and watching Question Time without me being on it," he reflects. John Humphrys filled in, for which Dimbleby remains grateful.
"I rang him up afterwards to thank him. He'd been up all night and then done the Today programme, so I was really grateful and I thought he did very well," he says.
Aside from live debates, Dimbleby has also done documentaries on the landscape of Britain and will be looking at history through art in his new seven-part series, The Seven Ages Of Britain, starting on BBC One on January 31, and accompanying tie-in book.
Towards the end of the book, he describes the "artistic chaos" of the 20th century which reflects Britain as a society uncertain about its goals.
"We're not necessarily a more unhappy nation now, just more chaotic," he says.
"There's deep disillusionment about politicians and a general disengagement and a feeling that the political world is unrepresentative of what the country thinks and is going its own way."
But that feeling makes for a better Question Time, he agrees. "It beautifully reflects the state of mind of the country as a whole."
Last year, Question Time celebrated its 30th anniversary. Dimbleby's style of chairmanship is far different from that of his predecessor, the outspoken, bow tie-wearing Sir Robin Day (and interim chairman Peter Sissons).
When Dimbleby took over, some critics thought that his genteel manner and comparatively quiet approach wouldn't stand the test of time.
Yet here he is, still chairing the political panel show 15 years on, thanks to his ability to stand back from the heat of the debate, just keeping the pot simmering but never boiling over uncontrollably (apart from the memorable Nick Griffin episode last year).
"I'm a kind of ringmaster but I don't see myself as the focal point of the programme at all – the audience is the focal point," Dimbleby insists.
There's been much controversy about whether BNP leader Griffin should have been allowed to appear on Question Time at all – but Dimbleby says he was all in favour.
"I'd been arguing to have the BNP on for about three years because Griffin was always interviewed at election time and I thought that the views the BNP have, since they're held by nearly a million people, ought to be just heard.
"I don't think you can keep things under a stone. It's much healthier, whatever your views, as long as they are within the law, that people should express them. So I was always in favour of Griffin being on.
"Then there was the question of what we would do when he came on and we were very much guided by the audience. There were many questions about his racism or what his real plan was for Britain. People wanted to know about him.
"If you add together the number who watched it on iPlayer and the number who watched it on the night, over 10 million watched it.
"We now quite often get a bigger audience than Jonathan Ross on Friday nights. Mind you, I don't get 6 million. You'd never have thought that a political programme could be as popular as a chat show, yet it is. It's very exciting."
Critics have said that Question Time has become increasingly adversarial and invites people like Griffin on to chase ratings.
But Dimbleby argues: "I don't think we chase ratings at all. We try to interest our audience, which is way different from chasing ratings.
"I don't think it's any more adversarial than it used to be, except when the audience gets angry, but there's a wider range of people on the panel.
"It's always had a tradition of robust argument. It's not a chat show, it's an argumentative place for debate and very often the argument between the politicians and the public gets heated."
What's the secret of his own success on the programme?
"I listen to the audience and we build the programme much more on what the audience wants to talk about.
"Chairing it, you just have to make sure that people shut up when you tell them to and accept your chairmanship.
"Then you find a way of weaving ideas into the question and making sure everyone has their go."
He also manages to add some humour to the programme.
"Nothing's planned, it's just a natural instinct of mine to keep things moving along and make a joke if it gets boring.
"They are not scripted gags, very often it makes use of something somebody said before which they've forgotten they said. That can be very funny."
At 71, other broadcasters might think of cutting down the workload or retiring, but not Dimbleby. He seems to enter each year with the same relish for work as the previous – but this year looks like it's going to be a particularly riveting one, he reflects.
He'll be hosting the third of three televised election debates featuring the leaders of the three main political parties in the run-up to the election as well as anchoring BBC election coverage.
"Sometimes elections are foregone conclusions but this one absolutely isn't – I think this one's going to be very interesting."
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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