The comedian Armando Iannucci is a clever man, but as my dad would say, he's not ShakespeareI think of Radio 4 as a kind of club - but I don't much like some of the other members
On the face of it, the comedy impresario Armando Iannucci was the perfect choice to round off a quartet of speeches for David Dimbleby's night of honour at the Media Society. Receiving the society's annual award for contribution to the media, the BBC's favoured anchor had already sat through paeans from Tony Hall, the former boss of BBC News and current boss of the Royal Opera House, the columnist Matthew Parris and the DG himself, Mark Thompson. Of whom more later. When Iannucci, the creative force behind BBC2's political comedy The Thick of It, strode to the platform, there was a general sigh of pleasure. At last, a proper gagster. But, as we discovered, he had come to praise Dimbleby, not to bury him in satire.
Iannucci has clearly been in awe of DD for about as long as the great man has worked for the BBC (five decades). One of his proudest professional moments, he told us, was his appearance as a Question Time panellist. When he hosted the 1997 general election coverage on BBC2, the highlight of his night, apparently, was when he ran up to Dimbleby (master-in-charge for BBC1 in the adjacent studio) and pretended to knock a pile of papers out of his arms. Maybe you had to be there. At one point Iannucci brandished his mobile, showing the front row a snap of Dimbleby on it. Everyone else in the room just had to take his word for it.
He then took us through his Seven Ages of Dimbleby. It's a bad sign when anyone at a lectern tells you they are going to give you a list, unless it is a list of two. What usually happens is that the speaker goes to town on the first two items while the audience starts looking at its collective watch and panicking. Iannucci is a clever man, but, as my dad would say, he's not Shakespeare. People around my table were very worried about what time the Seven Ages of DD would wrap up. Mercifully, he killed the idea off after the fourth age (which depicted Question Time in the future, with Dimbers represented by a Dimbledonkey puppet). "I am stopping at Age Four, because you are only halfway through your career," fawned Iannucci, by now getting into Father of the Bride territory.
It is fatal to be this deferential unless, of course, the occasion is a wedding and you are the father of the bride. Hero worship in the public domain doesn't really work. I once had to deal with the pin-up of my infancy, the 1970s pop hero Gilbert O'Sullivan, and was floored. The only position to take is one of humorous opposition, or, at least, healthy disinterest.
Which brings me to the DG. Mark Thompson stormed through his speech, displaying professional comic timing and a lofty point of view of Dimbleby commensurate with his post. The sheer power he wielded as director general gave his jokes, no matter how funny they were, the added thrill of an iron fist within the velvet glove of after-dinner rhetoric.
Dimbleby, according to Thompson, was "flirtatious" - with men, with women, and with animals. Does this mean David might replace Davina? Or, indeed, present Crufts? He had legs, said the DG, and he used them properly, unlike other news anchors who glided around "like Daleks". What was this? A veiled threat to the stars of Strictly Come Dancing - or, perhaps, a coded invitation for Dimbleby to inherit the Forsyth mantle? Either way, it was riveting stuff.
Post this article to
We want to encourage people to comment on our content and to exchange views with other readers and hope this will be done on a courteous basis. However, if you encounter posts which are offensive please let us know by emailing comments@newstatesman.co.uk and we will take swift action where necessary.
