One of Richard Dimbleby’s remarkable qualities was his capacity not only of sustaining a high level of performance himself, but the rare one of being able to bring out the best in other people who appeared in programmes with him. I felt this strongly during the newspaper strike in April 1955. The BBC organised a panel of journalists who appeared during the evening to report on and discuss the news they would have written for their papers. At that time I was Assistant Editor of the News Chronicle, and was a member of this panel.
The first show was a mess. We had as chairman a man who was an excellent broadcaster himself, but who got the rest of us into a tangle again and again, cutting off nervous newcomers to the screen before they had made their points, switching the discussion along different lines to those previously agreed, and – the sin of sin – even taking over and using himself ideas which, at rehearsal, others said they would propound. But the next night Richard Dimbleby was in the chair, and the whole atmosphere – and with it the effectiveness of the broadcast – improved instantly.
He guided each speaker skilfully and sympathetically, drawing out clarification where someone had been a bit obscure, intervening to help those who were hesitant, carefully heading off those who tried to grab all the time. He did this partly by the reassurance of his presence and voice, but even more because he listened to what we had to say, and steered the contributions of each of us towards a unified and rounded programme. He appeared throughout genuinely interested in our facts and ideas, and this interest conveyed itself to the panel and the audience.