David Dimbleby says goodbye after 25 years on Question Time

David Dimbleby chaired his final edition of Question Time on Thursday night, after presenting the political debate show for 25 years.

The veteran broadcaster hosted his last show about a week after it was announced that his fellow BBC presenter, Fiona Bruce, would succeed him, becoming the programme’s first female host. He told the audience that, while he was “off to new pastures”, it was “not goodbye, but goodnight”.

Dimbleby used his final moments in the chair to thank his colleagues on the production staff, particularly those who select venues and audiences, whom he said had a particularly difficult job.

He also thanked the audience members, who gave him a standing ovation. He told them they were some of the more than 100,000 people to have participated in the programme during his tenure.

The audiences have “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”, he said.

Closing the debate after the final question, on the rules that should or should not govern comedy, Dimbleby could not help poking fun at one of his guests, the former Brexit secretary David Davis. “Have you got a joke about Brexit for us?” he asked. “I was going to say some people might think you are the joke about Brexit.”

Dimbleby is by far Question Time’s longest serving presenter, having started on 13 January 1994. He was preceded by Peter Sissons, who chaired the programme between 1989 and 1993, and Robin Day from 1979 to 1989.

Davis’ fellow guests on the final programme were the Green MP Caroline Lucas, the shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, the comedian Jo Brand and the former education secretary Nicky Morgan.

Ahead of his final appearance, prominent political figures paid tribute to Dimbleby’s time as Question Time presenter, which spanned the tenures of five prime ministers.

“David Dimbleby’s become the voice of Britain, really ... Yet, he’s able to convert very easily from that to chairing what has become an increasingly obstreperous programme,” the former Lib Dem leader Menzies Campbell told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Question Time Extra Time.

He said Dimbleby brought in more audience participation during his tenure than previous presenters, but that sometimes made his job more difficult.

On the same programme, the shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, recounted a recent occasion when she said Dimbleby “came down on me like a ton of bricks and I was thinking: ‘What side of the bed did you get out this morning?’”

Thornberry said Dimbleby was able to admonish his guests while still being a “bit flirtatious”.

Ken Clarke, however, said he had never been shown that particular side of the presenter. “He’s just an A-star journalist and he’s made this programme very much the David Dimbleby show.”