Farewell Dimblebot, it's been a fucking blast
David Dimbleby's storied time as chair of Question Time came to an end on Thursday night, after 25 years.
The 80-year-old hero said he was not leaving broadcasting but intended to return to his "first love" - reporting.
He received a standing ovation from the audience and panellists at the close of the programme.
https://twitter.com/bbcquestiontime/status/1073362758131949569
At the end Dimbleby said: "This programme marks the end of my tenure as the chair… after a quarter of a century I’m off to new pastures, or at least in search of new pastures, but I didn’t want to end without saying something about this programme.
"It is, of all the programmes I’ve ever work on for the BBC, a truly team effort and I did want to end by thanking the people who have made it possible over the past 25 years.
"Above all I wanted to thank you here tonight - this audience. You’re joining over 100,000 people over the past 25 years who have been in the Question Time audience and who’ve exercised what I think is a really important democratic right: putting questions to the panel and to argue with each other as you have been tonight."
Piers Morgan, Julia Hartley-Brewer and Iain Dale all paid tribute to the broadcasting totem.
https://twitter.com/piersmorgan/status/1073285361424588800
https://twitter.com/JuliaHB1/status/1073329008207716353
https://twitter.com/IainDale/status/1073286009834618880
Dimbleby's final panel featured David Davis, Nicky Morgan, Angela Rayner, Caroline Lucas and Jo Brand.
