The Greatest TV Reporter in History
Communicate like Richard Dimbleby and success is guaranteed
September 2007 By Denny Hatch
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In the News
Harry moves mourners to tearsBRITAIN’S Prince Harry called Princess Diana “the best mother in the world” at a memorial service on the 10th anniversary of her death today that reduced hundreds of public mourners outside the venue to tears.
—Katherine Haddon, Agence France-Presse, September 1, 2007
So surfing DirecTV over early morning coffee on Friday, August 31, I stumbled on the BBC live coverage of the memorial service commemorating the 10th anniversary of the death of Princess Diana and was hooked.
It is the BBC that invented TV coverage of great national events—funerals, coronations, state visits and weddings. In terms of preparation, what to say, when to speak and when to shut the hell up and let events unfold, no one does it better than the BBC.
If you are ever called upon to make a speech or give a business presentation, the person to emulate is the BBC’s—and television’s—greatest broadcast journalist, Richard Dimbleby.
The Dawn of Television
The beginning of the television age can be pegged to a precise date: June 2, 1953. Remarkably, the place was not the United States, but Westminster Abbey, London. The event was the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and the question of television coverage generated a serious brouhaha.
In the first place, it was felt by British upper classes that the coronation ceremony itself should not be available to the lower classes, because it might be watched by people drinking beer, wearing hats and carrying on conversations. In the words of the British Web site, www.whirligig-tv.co.uk:
The Coronation Joint Executive Committee was the body ultimately responsible for the Coronation arrangements and epitomized the Establishment of the times. This august group decided in the summer of 1952 that to have live television inside the Abbey during the Coronation would impose an intolerable emotional strain on the young Queen. The bright lights and their heat could easily prove to be a disastrously heavy burden on a long exhausting day.
Moreover, it would deprive a then privileged class of peers and peeresses of the exclusive opportunity of witnessing at first hand the crowning of the new Queen. The Cabinet reviewing the Coronation arrangements on 10 July 1952, agreed that no facilities should be provided for television inside the Abbey.
Takeaway Points to Consider:
* Richard Dimbleby did his homework and was never at a loss for words. Not just any words, but words that always informed and frequently inspired. At the wedding of Princess Margaret, he was forced to ad lib for 55 minutes while the crew of the Royal Yacht Britannia and millions of viewers waited for the honeymoon to begin. “He described everything in sight,” wrote the Times’ James Feron, “including five helicopters overhead that periodically drowned him out.”* When making a speech or a business presentation, it is imperative to be completely prepared.
* Facts are more interesting—and memorable—than opinions.
* Try to anticipate every question that may be asked and have an answer.
* If a question stumps you, say simply, “I don’t know, but will have the answer for you by tomorrow morning.”
* The most irritating people in business are those that will not admit they do not know something.
* Choose your words carefully. Dimbleby did. So did the writers for TIME magazine from the 1920s to the 1960s. Check out TIME’s splendid prose from “The Flight of the Dimbleby” in the hyperlink below. By comparison, today’s broadcasters and magazine and newspaper writers are pathetic.
Web Sites Related to Today's Edition:
The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palacehttp://tinyurl.com/2jdho3
Richard Dimbleby with German family during WWII
http://tinyurl.com/3d2yde
Audio slideshow: Liberation of Belsen
http://tinyurl.com/2uqno5
Richard Dimbleby Narrating Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation (audio)
http://tinyurl.com/3algyr
BBC Telstar program 1962 Richard Dimbleby
http://tinyurl.com/2vnj5u
BBC Panorama early VT demo 1950s Richard Dimbleby
http://tinyurl.com/347v5s
Richard Dimbleby, Museum of Broadcast Communications Bio
http://tinyurl.com/ypzhls
“The Flight of the Dimbleby”— TIME
http://tinyurl.com/3xdrbo
Companies Mentioned:
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