Acclaim ?

The Evening Standard Londoner's Diary (editor Charlotte Edwardes) tells us that BBC DG Lord Hall "is spearheading a campaign to get David Dimbleby, the veteran broadcaster, a knighthood." This is unlike the BBC, which usually prefers to work through more discreet channels. Charlotte says the campaign is gathering support across media and politics - imperceptibly, as far as this reader is concerned.

David's dad, Richard Dimbleby, was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1946 for his work as a war correspondent. He was upgraded to CBE in 1959 with the one-word citation 'broadcaster'. He might have expected something from the Royal Victorian Order for his 1953 book, "Elizabeth Our Queen". He died in 1965, from cancer diagnosed five years earlier. Two weeks before his death he made his illness public in a report on Panorama. The Queen had six bottles of champagne delivered to his home by liveried footmen. Richard got his face on a stamp, and a memorial service in Westminster Abbey.

David is so far without gongs, although Atticus in the Sunday Times speculated that preparations for a knighthood were underway in 2004, when he would have been a mere 65, and just ten years into his chairmanship of Question Time.  His son, Henry was made an MBE in 2015 for work on a School Food Plan.