David Dimbleby has returned to the spotlight for a new BBC documentary entitled What’s the Monarchy For?

David Dimbleby disappeared from the public eye for years (Image: Getty)

BBC icon David Dimbleby disappeared from the spotlight after leaving Question Time as host in December 2018 – and now only makes rare public appearances. However, this month he’s back on our screens for a new documentary investigating the British Royal Family, entitled What’s the Monarchy For? 

Now 87 years old, David has been relatively quiet on his health over the years. But he has suffered tragic losses – with his brother Nicholas dying from motor neurone disease at the age of 77 last year. David himself is a passionate supporter of assisted dying, and in 2023 made a Radio 4 documentary with Nicholas following his MND diagnosis.

He said at the time: “MND is a death sentence. And you not only know that your life is going to be cut short by it but that you will deteriorate and nothing can be done to arrest it. There is no real management of it. It’s the doom. And every single day people are being struck down by it.”

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David said of his brother: “When he first rang to tell me of his diagnosis [in February 2023], I thought: it can’t be Nick, it can’t. Nick is too strong, he’s too fit, he’s too active, he’s too involved. He had such wonderful, big, strong hands. Sculptor’s hands.”

David also lost his famous father, Richard Dimbleby, at the age of just 52, from cancer.

As for David himself, fans have been left speechless at how “spry” the star looks – although over the years he has acknowledged that he is advancing in years. During an interview with The Telegraph, he admitted: “I need something that makes me sit up straight” when it comes to getting comfortable in a chair.

Dimbleby is investigating the British monarchy in a new documentary (Image: Getty)

During his stint as Question Time host, he said he “never got tired”, explaining: “I never prepared for it, though one year I do remember looking up what astronauts eat to give them energy and found it was bananas. They didn’t work for me. I stuck to chocolate and coffee.”

Still, Dimbleby admits he is a smoker – and that he only started in his 70s. He began smoking roll-ups to help him relax while taking his nephews sailing.

He didn’t start exercising until the age of 70, quipping: “In my day, no-one went jogging or anything like that, it seemed sort of ridiculous.”

In his new documentary, David was confronted in the street by one member of the public who branded him a “BBC liberal leftie” – and who warned the presenter he had “better be objective” in his latest piece.