{"id":142484,"date":"2018-06-17T21:08:54","date_gmt":"2018-06-17T21:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/david-dimbleby-to-leave-question-time\/"},"modified":"2018-06-17T21:08:54","modified_gmt":"2018-06-17T21:08:54","slug":"david-dimbleby-to-leave-question-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/english\/david-dimbleby-to-leave-question-time\/","title":{"rendered":"David Dimbleby to leave Question Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/images\/ic\/720x405\/p06bchtl.jpg\"\/>Media playback is unsupported on your device<figcaption>Media captionSome memorable moments from David Dimbleby&#039;s tenure as Question Time host<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"caps\">David Dimbleby is to leave Question Time after 25 years on the BBC&#039;s flagship political programme.<\/p>\n<p>The presenter, who will leave the show at the end of the year, said it was &quot;the right moment to leave&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>The 79-year-old, who has chaired the show since 1994, insisted he was &quot;not giving up broadcasting&quot; but planned &quot;to return to my first love: reporting&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>BBC director general Tony Hall called him &quot;a titan in British broadcasting&quot; and a &quot;champion of the public&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>Dimbleby, who began his broadcasting career more than 57 years ago, is the longest-serving presenter of Question Time.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, he has been the BBC&#039;s anchorman for all general elections since 1979, as well as the chief commentator for many state occasions including the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales in September 1997.<\/p>\n<p>In 1975 he presented the BBC&#039;s coverage of the first referendum in Europe, a role he repeated in 2016 for the BBC&#039;s coverage of the EU Referendum.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dimbleby to front last election in 2015<\/li>\n<li>Dimbleby &#039;won&#039;t correct scorpion tattoo&#039;<\/li>\n<li>Dimbleby caught out eating chocolate<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Speaking about his quarter of a century at the helm of Question Time, he said it had been &quot;exhilarating following the twists and turns of British politics&quot;.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;It has been a privilege to work for a programme which brings voters face to face with those in power,&quot; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The show has hosted many of Britain&#039;s most prominent politicians, as well as contributors as diverse as Russell Brand and BNP leader Nick Griffin.<\/p>\n<p>Last year saw him throw out one member of the audience after they repeatedly interrupted panel members during a Question Time edition filmed in Plymouth.<\/p>\n<p>He also revealed a less serious side, when it was reported that at the age of 75 he had got his first tattoo, of a scorpion, to represent his star sign.<\/p>\n<p>Paying tribute, Lord Hall said: &quot;David has been at the helm of Question Time for over 25 years: a brilliant champion of the public and the audience&#039;s friend - getting the answers they want on the big and difficult issues of the day.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Always a commanding figure, David has ensured Question Time has not only stayed relevant through the years, but a must watch for those interested in politics and current affairs.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;The BBC and the public are extraordinarily lucky to have him in what are - to say the least - interesting times politically and socially.  We look forward to working with him on other projects in the future.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Dimbleby&#039;s final broadcast on Question Time will be on 13 December 2018 - but there is no word yet on a successor.<\/p>\n<h2>Potential successors<\/h2>\n<p>Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark recently revealed she would be interested in taking over the role and would &quot;throw her hat in the ring&quot; when Dimbleby stepped down.<\/p>\n<p>Other suggested contenders include John Humphrys, Huw Edwards, Jeremy Vine and Nick Robinson.<\/p>\n<p>It is not known how much Dimbleby is paid for his role because Question Time is made by an independent production company, meaning his salary did not appear in last year&#039;s list of top paid BBC stars. <\/p>\n<p>Recent reports in the Telegraph speculated that he was paid \u00a3450,000 per annum by the corporation.<\/p>\n<p>Question Time has been on air for nearly 40 years. It was initially chaired by Robin Day (1979-89) and later by Peter Sissons (1989-93).<\/p>\n<p>              The best way to get news on the go<br \/>Download the BBC News App.                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/news.files.bbci.co.uk\/include\/newsspec\/19854\/assets\/app-project-assets\/bbc_news_logo.svg\"\/>                                       <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/news.files.bbci.co.uk\/include\/newsspec\/19854\/assets\/app-project-assets\/google_play_store.svg\"\/>                              <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/news.files.bbci.co.uk\/include\/newsspec\/19854\/assets\/app-project-assets\/ios_app_store.svg\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Media playback is unsupported on your deviceMedia captionSome memorable moments from David Dimbleby&#039;s tenure as Question Time host David Dimbleby is to leave Question Time after 25 years on the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-142484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142484\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/freeonlinetranslators.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}