hired" press secretaries "whose job is to disguise the truth" was given much attention by the British press. Dimbleby became involved in a number of projects that combined his established role as presenter and interviewer with documentary making. An early example of this was Yesterday's Men (1971), a film which the BBC recognises "ridiculed" the Labour opposition and led to a major conflict between the Corporation and the Labour Party; Dimbleby had his name removed from the credits because of the concessions that were made. In 1974, he became the presenter of Panorama, which had been presented by his father. Dimbleby anchored the BBC's overnight coverage of the 1979 general election, and continued in this role for the following ten general elections. In addition to election coverage, he also hosted BBC Budget specials, and was a presenter of the BBC early evening weekday current affairs series Nationwide. During the same period (beginning in 1979), Dimbleby has also been the anchor for the BBC's European Elections results programmes and in 2008 and 2012, anchored the BBC's coverage of the US Election night. Dimbleby was the main presenter of the BBC's political series This Week Next Week (1984–88), broadcast on Sunday early afternoons, as a competitor to ITV's established Weekend World series. As early as 1987, he was a contender for the position of Director-General of the BBC (losing out to Michael Checkland). This Week Next Week was replaced in 1988 by the On the Record, a political series presented until 1993 by his younger brother, Jonathan Dimbleby. Meanwhile, he continued to work in documentaries, including The White Tribe of Africa (1979), an award-winning four-part history of South Africa's Afrikaans community and the rise of apartheid, An Ocean Apart (1988), an examination of the history of Anglo-American relations, and Rebellion! (1999), a history of Britain's troubled relations with Zimbabwe. By this time, Dimbleby was established as the anchor for the BBC's coverage of events of national importance, such as the State Opening of Parliament, the Trooping the Colour, the National Service of Remembrance service at the Cenotaph in Whitehall. From 1994 Dimbleby served as chairman of the BBC's Thursday evening topical debate programme Question Time from 1994 until 2018. One of the most memorable moments from Question Time was when Dimbleby accidentally referred to Robin Cook as "Robin Cock", to which Cook responded by jokingly referring to Dimbleby as "David Bumblebee". In