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| David Dimbleby chides John Humphrys over 'posh' jibe in interview | David Dimbleby chides John Humphrys over 'posh' jibe in interview |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| David Dimbleby took umbrage when the BBC Radio 4 host John Humphrys described him as posh. | David Dimbleby took umbrage when the BBC Radio 4 host John Humphrys described him as posh. |
| Dimbleby, who was guest-editing the Today programme on Saturday morning, responded sharply when he was asked about his views on the monarchy.Humphrys said he imagined Dimbleby had been quite close to the Windsors over the years, given the number of royal occasions he had covered and the fact that he was “quite posh”. | |
| “Sorry John, there’s a typical sneer in that question,” Dimbleby fired back. “You’re quite posh, I’m about as posh as you are. I come from Wales, you do. I’m not posh, I happen to have been a broadcaster for a long time.” | “Sorry John, there’s a typical sneer in that question,” Dimbleby fired back. “You’re quite posh, I’m about as posh as you are. I come from Wales, you do. I’m not posh, I happen to have been a broadcaster for a long time.” |
| “You had a very distinguished father,” Humphrys retorted, referring to Richard Dimbleby OBE MBE, a leading news commentator for the BBC during the 1950s. | “You had a very distinguished father,” Humphrys retorted, referring to Richard Dimbleby OBE MBE, a leading news commentator for the BBC during the 1950s. |
| “Well, that doesn’t make me posh, I had a distinguished father, that’s a ridiculous question,” Dimbleby said. “No, but the point is about the monarchy. I’m not close to the monarchy, I’ve met the Queen probably less often than you. I’ve met her once, I think. I have no connection at all.” | “Well, that doesn’t make me posh, I had a distinguished father, that’s a ridiculous question,” Dimbleby said. “No, but the point is about the monarchy. I’m not close to the monarchy, I’ve met the Queen probably less often than you. I’ve met her once, I think. I have no connection at all.” |
| “I don’t know why I made that assumption,” Humphrys said, before going on to question Dimbleby on what he thought about the monarchy. | “I don’t know why I made that assumption,” Humphrys said, before going on to question Dimbleby on what he thought about the monarchy. |
| David Dimbleby says goodbye after 25 years on Question Time | David Dimbleby says goodbye after 25 years on Question Time |
| Asked what question he would ask himself in an interview, Dimbleby said: “Ever think of stopping? And I’d say ‘no, I just love asking questions, I’m not sure I like answering them.’” | Asked what question he would ask himself in an interview, Dimbleby said: “Ever think of stopping? And I’d say ‘no, I just love asking questions, I’m not sure I like answering them.’” |
| Humphrys thanked Dimbleby for guest-editing the Today programme, and noted that he is “positively not posh”. | Humphrys thanked Dimbleby for guest-editing the Today programme, and noted that he is “positively not posh”. |
| Many listeners were not so convinced. Online responses to the encounter have focused on the differences between the two BBC veterans’ backgrounds and education. Can a former public school boy who studied at Christ Church Oxford, sent a son to Eton, and is married to the granddaughter of an earl really argue he is not among the nation’s social elite? | |
| Even Spectator magazine acknowledged that the guest editor was on shaky ground. “Dimbleby is leading the way when it comes to traditional posh credentials at least,” he said. Listener @lucycthomas called for a rematch: | |
| Has John Humphrys met his match? “What a ridiculous question!” says Dimbleby on being called “posh” and “close to the monarchy”. Humphrys, for once, says nothing in quiet acceptance. @BBCr4today please can this be a regular slot? | |
| It is true that Dimbleby and Humphrys both have Welsh mothers and began their careers as reporters, but there are few other similarities. To the average audience member, however, they may well both qualify as posh, given they have high salaries and speak with the “received pronunciation” favoured for BBC staffers until recent decades. | |
| Humphrys, one of five children, was born to a hairdresser and a self-employed French polisher in Adamsdown, Cardiff. When he passed the 11-plus exam he went on to Cardiff high school, then a grammar. Dimbleby, the elder brother of the Any Questions? radio presenter Jonathan Dimbleby, was born in Surrey to the leading BBC correspondent and presenter Richard Dimbleby. After prep school in Sussex, he went to Charterhouse school in Surrey. He read philosophy, politics and economics at Christ Church, Oxford, where he led the college’s student body, edited the student magazine Isis and was a member of the infamous all-male dining and drinking society, the Bullingdon Club. He graduated with a third-class honours degree. | |
| His son Henry Dimbleby, a co-founder of the food chain Leon, was revealed by Jacob Rees-Mogg on a Question Time of 2015 to have been his contemporary at Eton. | |
| Dimbleby, who was married to the cookery writer Josceline for 33 years, has been married since 2000 to Belinda Giles, the daughter of the former Sunday Times editor Frank, and granddaughter of the 9th earl of De La Warr. He chaired his last Question Time earlier this month and will be replaced by the BBC newsreader and Antiques Roadshow host Fiona Bruce next month. | |
| He still enjoys the political cut and thrust, though. A key element of the Today programme he edited was an interview with the editor of the Evening Standard, George Osborne. | |
| After questioning the former chancellor about Brexit, he asked the architect of Tory austerity if he felt homeless “deaths in doorways” were “a direct result of the austerity that you imposed”, which Osborne denied. | |
| He then asked Osborne to agree that his career after parliament had capitalised on his previous government position by “taking job after job after job and earning millions of pounds a year”. | |
| “You became prominent as chancellor and you now swan around the world making speeches and work for Blackrock, and earn several hundred thousand a year from them. It is as though, somehow, the business of going into politics, which you abandoned when it turned against you, was actually a pathway into what you are doing now, making a buck for yourself.” | |
| Osborne replied that he would not be editing a newspaper if he was prioritising his income. | |
| Dimbleby also revealed his previous attempts to assume high positions at the national broadcaster during the interview. “I twice tried to become director-general and I once tried to become chairman,” he said. | |
| Asked whether the BBC was doing what it should be now, he said: “I think its a brilliant organisation, I still think it … has far too many management people in it, and not enough people like you and Mishal [Husain]. I think the business of cutting back the bureaucracy is really important.” | Asked whether the BBC was doing what it should be now, he said: “I think its a brilliant organisation, I still think it … has far too many management people in it, and not enough people like you and Mishal [Husain]. I think the business of cutting back the bureaucracy is really important.” |
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