David Dimbleby, the 87-year-old former Question Time and Panorama presenter, has launched a scathing attack on the BBC’s sweeping cost-cutting programme, which threatens up to 2,000 roles over the coming three years.
The veteran broadcaster branded the corporation’s drive to save £500 million by 2029 as deeply misguided in a new interview, branding it a “very bad call.”
“Why on earth have they done that? The best analysis of politics, both national and international… I’m appalled. Very bad, bad, bad, bad, bad call,” he said.
Mr Dimbleby, who began his BBC career as a news reporter in Bristol during the 1960s and fronted Question Time for nearly a quarter of a century until 2018, directed his dismay at several specific decisions made under new director-general Matt Brittin.
Among his sharpest criticisms was the near-total dismantling of BBC Studios Events, the specialist team behind coverage of landmark national moments such as Remembrance Day ceremonies, state funerals and royal weddings.
The unit has been stripped down to a single member of staff, Claire Popplewell, who led coverage of both the Wales and Sussex royal weddings.
Ms Popplewell will take over the reins from what was a team of six.
“And my God, BBC Events being closed!” said Mr Dimbleby, who himself commentated on Cenotaph services in Whitehall for over 25 years and came out of retirement to anchor the BBC’s broadcast of Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral.
“It takes months of connections to make friends with the people at the Palace, with Westminster Abbey, with the police, to know what’s going on with Downing Street, so that when the day comes, everybody helps you.”
“It’s a BBC gold standard to cover big national events. It’s at the heart of the BBC, and I cannot understand what they’re up to. But I have no power in the BBC,” he added to Radio Times.
Mr Dimbleby was also left outraged by the decision to scrap Radio 4’s The World Tonight, which has been on air for more than half a century since its debut in 1970.
He singled out presenter James Coomarasamy for praise, describing the programme as the finest political analysis available “at just the time I want to hear it each night.”
The show is among several Radio 4 casualties, alongside the Midnight News, Money Box Live, AntiSocial, The Law Show and Crossing Continents, all due to be shut down within the next year.
The BBC defended the move, stating: “We have tried to mitigate the impact on audiences as much as possible, so The World Tonight will be replaced by BBC World Service’s Newshour, another high-quality news analysis programme made by the same production team, preceded by a domestic news bulletin.”
The savings programme extends well beyond these flagship casualties.
From September, the Sunday morning edition of BBC Breakfast will be dropped, while the production teams behind Newsnight and Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg are being consolidated into one unit.
Reporters and presenters will also be expected to shoot footage on their mobile phones instead of relying on camera crews.
Mr Brittin, who succeeded Tim Davie in May, told staff the BBC would “review our broadcast TV channels and radio network portfolio as audiences move online,” adding that up to 10 per cent of senior leaders would also face the axe.
