Peter Dimmock: Pioneering broadcaster and producer who played a pivotal role in the growth of television

Peter Dimmock was probably the last survivor of the group of energetic and freewheeling young men and women who restarted the fledgling BBC Television Service in 1946, after its closure during the Second World War. There were not many of them: TV, available only in the London area and with just a few thousand sets in operation, was very much the poor relation of radio. As a consequence the group made their own rules and performed a variety of roles, both on and off screen, even though the word multi-tasking had not yet entered the language. It was all very different from the top-heavy management structure that afflicts the BBC today.

Hired as a commentator and producer of live outside broadcasts, Dimmock would exercise a strong influence on the development of sports coverage and “event television” in the service’s formative years. Born in 1921, he was educated at Dulwich College and joined the army on the outbreak of war. In 1941 he transferred to the RAF and became a flying instructor.

After demobilisation he found work at the Press Association as a racing correspondent until he was recruited by BBC Television in May 1946, a month before the service resumed. In a 1948 book, Television Behind the Scenes, his job is described thus: “In addition to duties as producer, undertakes horse-racing commentaries for sound and television, and other sports commentaries for television. Writes articles connected with horse-racing.”

But it was as a producer that he contributed most to the growth of television as we know it today. He was heavily involved in coverage of the London Olympic Games in 1948 and pioneered the televising of other major sporting events such as the university Boat Race and the Grand National, as well as masterminding the first TV relay from abroad, from Calais in 1950. His confident, decisive manner and his ready grasp of the intricacies of broadcasting technology meant that he usually got his way. He even had the gall to suggest to the late Peter O’Sullevan, the supreme racing commentator, that he should try to speak more slowly.

In 1953 Dimmock single-handedly persuaded the initially reluctant Church of England and Buckingham Palace to allow cameras inside Westminster Abbey for the Queen’s coronation. There was no problem in getting permission to cover the procession towards the Abbey, but it was felt that having cameras inside would detract from the dignity of the ceremony. He later recalled that the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, was also against it, asking, “Why should the public get a better view than me?” Yet he overcame these high-powered objections by demonstrating that the cameras in the Abbey would be unobtrusive. The resulting coverage was a triumph, and is credited with fuelling the exponential growth in demand for TV sets in the remainder of the decade.

Unlike Churchill, Dimmock believed fervently that the prime role of television was to allow the general public to witness significant events as they happened. In an article in The Times in 1957 he wrote: “The great strength of live outside broadcasts is the element of surprise. This applies particularly to sporting events... The television medium thrives on immediacy, and only live outside broadcast cameras can provide this exciting ingredient of actuality and suspense.”

In 1954 he was appointed head of outside broadcasts. The first programme he created was Sportsview, a weekly miscellany that he produced and presented. That year also saw the debut of Sports Review of the Year, in which the current leading sports personality is named and honoured. Four years later Dimmock was the first producer of Grandstand, the Saturday afternoon feast of live sport that ran for 49 years. He fronted the first two programmes, before giving way as presenter to David Coleman. He was, too, the first of many host and hostesses of Come Dancing, the long-running precursor of Strictly Come Dancing. (Relayed from various ballrooms, Come Dancing counted as an outside broadcast.)

In 1958 he arranged the first live coverage of the state opening of Parliament, gaining rave reviews. “Television did the programme wonderfully well,” enthused The Times, singling out Dimmock for special praise. His sports expertise was acknowledged in 1959 when he became chairman of the sports committee of the European Broadcasting Union, a post he held for 13 years.

Moving away from programme-making in 1972, he became general manager of BBC Enterprises, the Corporation’s commercial arm. He left the BBC in 1977 and moved to the US as vice-president of sports sales and marketing for the ABC television network. In 1984 he became a director of ESPN, a cable and satellite channel specialising in sport, returning to Britain in 1990 as chairman of Zenith Entertainment, an independent production company. He retired in 2000.

Dimmock was awarded the OBE in 1961 and became a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) in 1968, in recognition of his role in easing relations between the BBC and the royal family. In 1977 he was made a freeman of the City of London and was admitted to the Royal Television Society’s Hall of Fame in 1996. A dapper man with a neatly clipped moustache, he was named one of Britain’s 10 best-dressed men in 1960.

He was married three times, although his Who’s Who entry omits any reference to his first wife, Pamela Brealey. In 1960 he married Polly Elwes, a reporter on the Tonight programme, and they had three daughters. Polly died of cancer in 1987 and in 1990 he married Christabel Scott, a widow.

Peter Harold Dimmock, broadcaster: born Wandsworth, south London 1921; OBE 1961, CVO 1968; married 1951 Pamela Brealey (divorced 1958), 1960 Polly Elwes (died 1987; three daughters), 1990 Christabel Scott; died 20 November 2015.