I broke the Leave win news after a vote lacking any sense

I remember the night of the referendum well.

- DAVID DIMBLEBY

Our BBC results programme went on air at 10pm when the polls closed. Long before we were able to tell the country, it was obvious who had won.

The pollster John Curtice had made a chart showing how each district of the country would vote if the result were to be 50/50. When the first result came in from Sunderland, it revealed that voters there had opted for Brexit in greater numbers than the makeup of the area suggested. As more results came in, the pattern was repeated with a few exceptions. The electorate was clearly opting to leave.

But rules are rules. The BBC rule is never to announce a result until it is numerically proven. So finally, at 4.40am, John gave me the go-ahead to announce the result. I scribbled a note at the last minute mentioning that this was the reversal of the decision to stay in the Common Market in 1975, another referendum I had fronted. Then, on the spur of the moment, I went into overdrive: “The British people have spoken, and the answer is, we're out,” I said. A statement of the obvious which, to my amazement, went viral.