BIG VOICE FOR BIG OCCASIONS

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34047, 10 January 1976, Page 8

BIG VOICE FOR BIG OCCASIONS

Richard Dimbleby By Jonathan Dimbleby. Hodder and Stoughton. 422 pp N.2. price $12.90. Clearly this biography of Richard Dimb'eby by his second son, Jonathan, was a labour of love. The major point to consider is whether it gained or lost by this. The answer may be that it gained in familiarity and lost in prolixity. Jonathan leaves no doubt that he admires his late father tremendously, both aa a parent and a professional broadcaster. At the same time he tells his readers a hundred times how good Richard was. The book is perhaps one-quarter too long. If much repetition of sentiment, and duplication of illustration, had been removed it would have been greatly improved. As it is the biography is very good of its kind. It is most readable. How much better it would have been, though, if it had not been allowed — tn the journalistic idiom so readily used by both Richard and Jonathan — to “go to seed.”

Richard Dimbleby was a phenomenon. In the broadcasting field — first in radio and later in television — he continually broke new ground. He was always the pioneer when these two media were new. His output was enormous, and his financial return became very large by the standards of his craft. But it must be open to doubt whether, in the end he received the real rewards due to him as an innovator active for almost 30 years. Richard Dimbleby died of cancer in 1965 at the age of 52, at which time he could justly be called a world celebrity through his work for the 8.8. C. A memorial service in Westminster Abbey drew the large-- 1 congregation ever known there except for State occasions The event was by way of national mourning, watched by millions on television. The irony of the situation was, of course, that Dimbleby had long been the B.B.C’s major commentator for occasions such as an Abbey service; and his place on rhe Triforium, where he had often worked, was shown to the television watchers — empty.

Richard Dimbleby came to be so well known and so famous as a broadcaster that it might be imagined that he arrived, and stayed, at the top through a logical and uninterrupted sequence of events moulded solely by the force of his talent. Nothing could be farther from the case. Jonathan Dimbleby’s account is as

much as anything a chronicle of Richard’s incessant fighting with the 8.8. C. During the war Richard Dimbleby was actually sacked from the job 'he was doing as the B.B.C’s principal overseas “observer;" and after the war he threw in a judicious resignation from the B.B.C’s news service when, as a really celebrated broadcaster, he could secure neither promotion nor a pay increase. From that time Dimbleby did his work with the 8.8. C. under contract. He was so much in demand for so many kinds of programmes — including radio and television at the same time — and was so able to screw his fees ever higher that he was soon earning vastly in excess of any straight salary he could have commanded with the same employer. He developed numerous other sources of income while he was with te 8.8. C. —programmes for America,

writing for newspapers — and towards the end his income from the 8.8. C. alone was £15.000 a year. Dimbleby- earned his money. He was totally reliable and completely unflappable. If something went wrong, and he had to ad lib, he could go on with his orotund' and beautifully executed phrases without pause or stumble — forever, it seemed. Once he ad libbed for 50 minutes. He was constantly suggesting new ideas and showing himself willing to

try new techniques. Not only’ did he have a miracle of a voice and delivery — he was fascinated by T the technicalities of his work. He was professional to the core. His love-hate relationship with the 8.8. C. was more love than hate. He had a horror of commercial broadcasting, and made no secret of it. But he also had many offers from I.T.V. and made no secret of this. The 8.8. C. was confident that he would never leave, but was never quite sure — especially when fees were being negotiated. Dimbleby was such a man of his times, so well known and popular, that he came to be regarded generally as an indestructible institution. Yet, times were changing. Not only’ his personal style of delivery but also the system of commentating were starting to look old-fashioned. Perhaps he would have found yet another technique; the problem was never put to the test. Richard Dimbleby’ had a losing fight with cancer for five years. In the three years to the end of 1963 he made 50 visits to St Thomas’s for treatment and did not miss a single 8.8. C. engagement. He was always wanted as the big voice for the big occasion.

In those three years he covered three Royal weddings, three Trooping the Colours, three Remembrance Day services, a Royal funeral, a Presidential funeral, -. Presidential inauguration, a Papal itinera!, a Papal visit to the Holy Land, Royal visits to Sweden and Italy, Budgets and byelections, inaugural programmes from Moscow and New York, numerous and lesser outside broadcasts, several “crisis” specials, more than 130 Panoramas (television news backgrounders), and more than 100 editions of the panel show “Twenty Questions.” “In the public mind he had become more than ever entrenched as a national figure in British life,” writes Jonathan, adding that more newspapers than before had urged: “Make him Sir Richard!” Jonathan Dimbleby refers a number of times to the Richard Dimbleby knighthood which never came, so presumably it was wanted. Still, when he was finally confined to the hospital bed which he never left, and a public announcement was made for the first time of the true nature of his illness the Queen, Jonathan records, had a footman bring six bottles of champagne to his bedside.