BBC icon David Dimbleby disappeared from the highlight after leaving Query Time as host in December 2018 – and now solely makes uncommon public appearances. Nonetheless, this month he’s again on our screens for a brand new documentary investigating the British Royal Household, entitled What’s the Monarchy For? 

Now 87 years previous, David has been comparatively quiet on his well being over time. However he has suffered tragic losses – together with his brother Nicholas dying from motor neurone illness on the age of 77 final yr. David himself is a passionate supporter of assisted dying, and in 2023 made a Radio 4 documentary with Nicholas following his MND prognosis.

He mentioned on the time: “MND is a loss of life sentence. And also you not solely know that your life goes to be minimize brief by it however that you’ll deteriorate and nothing will be achieved to arrest it. There is no such thing as a actual administration of it. It’s the doom. And each single day persons are being struck down by it.”

David mentioned of his brother: “When he first rang to inform me of his prognosis [in February 2023], I assumed: it will possibly’t be Nick, it will possibly’t. Nick is simply too robust, he’s too match, he’s too energetic, he’s too concerned. He had such fantastic, massive, robust fingers. Sculptor’s fingers.”

David additionally misplaced his well-known father, Richard Dimbleby, on the age of simply 52, from most cancers.

As for David himself, followers have been left speechless at how “spry” the star appears to be like – though over time he has acknowledged that he’s advancing in years. Throughout an interview with The Telegraph, he admitted: “I would like one thing that makes me sit up” with regards to getting snug in a chair.

Throughout his stint as Query Time host, he mentioned he “by no means bought drained”, explaining: “I by no means ready for it, although one yr I do bear in mind trying up what astronauts eat to present them power and located it was bananas. They didn’t work for me. I caught to chocolate and occasional.”

Nonetheless, Dimbleby admits he’s a smoker – and that he solely began in his 70s. He started smoking roll-ups to assist him chill out whereas taking his nephews crusing.

He didn’t begin exercising till the age of 70, quipping: “In my day, no-one went jogging or something like that, it appeared type of ridiculous.”

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