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David Frost during an interview with Donald Rumsfeld.

Sir David Paradine Frost, OBE (born 7 April 1939, Tenterden, Kent) moved to Beccles, Suffolk as a child and is an English television presenter. He currently presents a weekly programme, 'Frost Over The World', on the newly launched Al Jazeera English Channel. Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 468 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (679 × 869 pixel, file size: 159 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Other versions Image:David Frost Rumsfeld interview. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 468 × 599 pixelsFull resolution (679 × 869 pixel, file size: 159 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) Other versions Image:David Frost Rumsfeld interview. ... Donald Henry Rumsfeld (born July 9, 1932) is a U.S. Republican politician and businessman, who was the 13th Secretary of Defense under President Gerald Ford from 1975 to 1977, and the 21st Secretary of Defense under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2006. ... People called David Frost include: Sir David Frost (broadcaster), a British broadcaster David Frost (golfer), a South African golfer. ... The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority, these are Knight Grand Cross or Dame Grand Cross (GBE) Knight Commander... April 7 is the 97th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (98th in leap years). ... Year 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Tenterden is a small town in the Ashford District of Kent, England. ... The Kent coat of arms For other uses, see Kent (disambiguation). ... Map sources for Beccles at grid reference TM4290 Beccles is a market town in Suffolk within The Broads National Park. ... Suffolk (pronounced ) is a large historic and modern non-metropolitan county in East Anglia, England. ... Motto (French) God and my right Anthem No official anthem specific to England — the United Kingdom anthem is God Save the Queen. ... Al Jazeera English is a 24-hour English-language news and current affairs TV channel headquartered in Doha, Qatar. ...

Biography

He was born at Tenterden, Kent, the son of a Methodist minister, the Rev. W.J. Paradine Frost, and attended Barnsole Road Primary School in Gillingham, Kent, then Gillingham Grammar School and finally Wellingborough Grammar School. He subsequently won a place at Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a First in English. Tenterden is a small town in the Ashford District of Kent, England. ... The Kent coat of arms For other uses, see Kent (disambiguation). ... Gillingham is a town in Kent, England, forming part of the Medway conurbation; it is a constituent of Medway unitary authority. ... The Kent coat of arms For other uses, see Kent (disambiguation). ... Full name Gonville and Caius College Motto - Named after Edmund Gonville & John Caius Previous names Gonville Hall (1348), Gonville & Caius (1557) Established 1348 Sister College Brasenose College Master Neil McKendrick Location Trinity St Undergraduates 468 Graduates 291 Homepage Boatclub Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, generally known as Caius (though pronounced...

He is married to Lady Carina Frost, a daughter of the 17th Duke of Norfolk. He was previously married (1981-82) to Lynne Frederick (widow of Peter Sellers). He was romantically involved with American actress Diahann Carroll in the 1960's. Major-General Miles Francis Stapleton-Fitzalan-Howard, 17th Duke of Norfolk, KG, GCVO, CB, CBE, MC DL (July 21, 1915 – June 24, 2002), was the eldest son of Bernard Fitzalan-Howard, 3rd Baron Howard of Glossop and his wife Mona Stapleton, 11th Baroness Beaumont. ... Lynne Maria Frederick (July 25, 1954 – April 27, 1994) was an English actress. ... Richard Henry Peter Sellers, CBE (8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English comedian, actor, and performer, who came to prominence on the BBC radio series The Goon Show and later became a film star. ...

From early on, Frost allegedly declared his ambition to become a TV personality. Frost's well-known ability to network with the right people was in evidence at Cambridge, where he edited the student newspaper Varsity and the literary magazine Granta as well as taking on the role of secretary of the famous Footlights drama society, which included people of note such as Peter Cook and John Bird. The University of Cambridge (often Cambridge University), located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world and has a reputation as one of the worlds most prestigious universities. ... The word varsity can refer to several things. ... This article is about the literary magazine and publisher. ... The ADC Theatre is the home of the Footlights. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... John Bird (born 22 November 1936) is an English satirist, actor and comedian. ...

After leaving university, he became a trainee at Associated-Rediffusion and worked for Anglia Television. At the same time, he kept up his cabaret performances. Associated-Rediffusion, later Rediffusion London, was the British Independent Television (commercial television) contractor for London, on weekdays between 1954 (transmissions started on September 22, 1955) and July 29, 1968. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

That Was The Week That Was (TW3)

After several others declined the role (including Peter Cook, John Bird and Brian Redhead), he was chosen by writer and producer Ned Sherrin to host a pioneering satirical programme called That Was The Week That Was (alias TW3). This caught the wave of the satire boom in 1960s Britain and became enormously popular as well as influential, although it often riled politicians. TW3 was the last piece of scheduled programming broadcast by the BBC on a Saturday, and regularly overran its time slot. But by the second series it was followed by repeats of 'The Third Man', starring Michael Rennie. Frost took note of this, and at the end of each edition of TW3 would reveal the plot featuring the key twists and turns of each episode so that there would be very little point in watching the programme. After three weeks the BBC took note; 'The Third Man' was taken off the air and TW3 got its full hour (and a bit) back. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... There have been several well-known people named John Bird, including: John Bird (actor) John Bird (astronomer) John Bird (politician) ... Brian Redhead (28 December 1929 _ 23 January 1994) was a British author, journalist and broadcaster. ... Ned Sherrin (born 18 February 1931 in Somerset, England) is a broadcaster, author and stage director. ... That Was The Week That Was, also known as TW3, was a satirical television comedy programme that aired on BBC Television in 1962 and 1963. ... The satire boom is a general term to describe the emergence of a generation of English satirical writers, journalists and performers at the end of the 1950s. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, which is usually known as the BBC, is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GB£4 billion. ...

In 1985, David Frost produced and hosted a special in the same format called "That Was the Year That Was" on NBC. Year 1985 (MCMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link displays 1985 Gregorian calendar). ... The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American television network headquartered in the GE Building in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ...

After TW3

Frost fronted a number of programmes following the success of TW3, most notably The Frost Report (1966-67), which launched the television careers of John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett. He signed for Rediffusion, the ITV weekday contractor in London, to produce a "heavier" interview-based show The Frost Programme. This was a ground-breaking British "chat show", on which Frost interviewed many controversial characters. Guests included Sir Oswald Mosley and Rhodesian premier Ian Smith (he accused Smith of denying promotion to black members of Rhodesia's army, navy and air force, only to be told by Smith that landlocked Rhodesia didn't have a navy). His memorable dressing-down of insurance fraudster Emil Savundra was generally regarded as the first example of 'trial by television' in the UK. The Frost Report was a satirical television show hosted by Sir David Frost. ... John Marwood Cleese (born 27 October 1939) is an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award winning English comedian and actor. ... Ronnie Barker Ronald William George Barker OBE (September 25, 1929 – October 3, 2005), popularly known as Ronnie Barker and (as a writer) Gerald Wiley , was an English comic actor and writer. ... Ronnie Corbett in Extras Ronald Balfour Corbett, OBE (born 4 December 1930 in Edinburgh, commonly credited as Ronnie Corbett) is a British comedian and actor, best known as one of The Two Ronnies. ... Associated-Rediffusion, later Rediffusion London, was the British Independent Television (commercial television) contractor for London, on weekdays between 1954 (transmissions started on September 22, 1955) and July 29, 1968. ... Independent Television (generally known as ITV, but also as ITV Network) is a public service network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority (ITA) to provide competition to the BBC. ITV is the oldest commercial television network in the UK. Since 1990 and the Broadcasting... Television series redirects here. ... A talk show (U.S.) or chat show (Brit. ... Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet (November 16, 1896 – December 3, 1980), was a British politician known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists. ... Southern Rhodesia, todays Zimbabwe. ... The Rt Hon Ian Smith, Prime Minister of Rhodesia, 1964 (official portrait) Ian Douglas Smith GCLM ID (born 8 April 1919) was the Premier of the British Crown Colony of Southern Rhodesia from 13 April 1964 to 11 November 1965, and Prime Minister of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) from 11 November... Emil Savundra, (1923 - 1976), was a convicted fraudster and swindler. ...

In 1963 a moving tribute to recently-assassinated President John F. Kennedy on That Was The Week That Was had seen Frost's fame spread to the USA. LP recordings of TW3 became best sellers and so began an intensely busy period for Frost, including practically commuting across the Atlantic. His show Frost On America featured guests such as Jack Benny, Tennessee Williams and, in 1977, Richard Nixon - a famously hard-hitting interview for American television that was the subject of a 2006 play by Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon, which was presented both in London and on Broadway. President Kennedy with his wife, Jacqueline, and Texas Governor John Connally in the presidential limousine just moments before his assassination The assassination of John F. Kennedy, the thirty-fifth President of the United States, took place on Friday, November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, USA at 12:30 p. ... Jack Benny (February 14, 1894 in Chicago, Illinois – December 26, 1974 in Beverly Hills, California), born Benjamin Kubelsky, was an American comedian, vaudeville performer, and radio, television, and film actor. ... Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), better known by the pseudonym Tennessee Williams, was a major American playwright and one of the prominent playwrights of the twentieth century. ... Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913 – April 22, 1994) was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. ... Born 1919, in a house next to the companys factory in Worcester Road, Malvern, where his father, HFS Morgan, had established the business 10 years earlier. ... Frost/Nixon is a play by the British screenwriter and dramatist Peter Morgan. ...

That same year he was the Executive Producer of the Academy Award nominated Sherman Brothers musical film, The Slipper and the Rose. Frost was an organiser of the Music for UNICEF Concert at the United Nations General Assembly in 1979. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Although he never won an Oscar for any of his movie performances, the comedian Bob Hope received two honorary Oscars for his contributions to cinema. ... Robert B. Sherman & Richard M. Sherman at the London Palladium in 2002 during the premiere of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang: The Stage Musical. ... The musical film is a film genre in which several songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative. ... The Slipper and the Rose (1976) (143 min) is a British musical film retelling the classic fairy tale of Cinderella. ... The event was broadcast on NBC in the United States The Music for UNICEF Concert: A Gift of Song was a benefit concert of popular music held in the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on January 9, 1979. ... The United Nations General Assembly (GA) is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations. ... Also: 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins. ...

He is perhaps best known in the UK for presenting the panel game Through the Keyhole, which also featured Loyd Grossman and, more recently, Catherine Gee. After transferring from ITV, his Sunday morning interview programme Breakfast with Frost ran on the BBC from January 1993 until May 29, 2005. The programme originally began in this format on TV-am in September 1983 as Frost on Sunday and ran till the station lost its franchise. Later it transferred to BSB before moving to the BBC. Through the Keyhole is a light-hearted BBC (originally ITV) panel game, where panelists have to attempt to identify the celebrity who lives in a house, after they are given a video tour of it. ... Loyd Daniel Gilman Grossman, OBE, FSA (born September 16, 1950) is an English-American television presenter and chef who mainly works in the United Kingdom. ... Independent Television (generally known as ITV, but also as ITV Network) is a public service network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority (ITA) to provide competition to the BBC. ITV is the oldest commercial television network in the UK. Since 1990 and the Broadcasting... Breakfast with Frost was a talk show hosted by Sir David Frost on the BBC on Sunday mornings. ... is the 149th day of the year (150th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Frost was instrumental in starting up two important TV franchises: LWT in 1967, and as one of the Famous Five who launched TV-am in 1982. He owns a production company called Paradine Productions, after his middle name. He was also part of a consortium with Richard Branson that had failed to acquire three ITV franchises under the CPV-TV name. London Weekend Television logo, 1978-1996 London Weekend Television Limited (LWT) is the ITV contractor for London, Friday 5:15pm to Monday, 5:59am. ... Year 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the 1967 Gregorian calendar. ... TV-am was a breakfast television station that broadcast in the United Kingdom from 1983 to 1992. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, the lead section of this article may need to be expanded. ... Independent Television (generally known as ITV, but also as ITV Network) is a public service network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority (ITA) to provide competition to the BBC. ITV is the oldest commercial television network in the UK. Since 1990 and the Broadcasting... CPV-TV was a company which had bid for three ITV franchises at the 1991 ITV franchise auction. ...

Frost is the only person to have interviewed all of the past six British prime ministers and the past seven US presidents. He was also the last person to interview Mohammad Reza Shah, the last Shah of Iran. His Majesty Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (اعلیحضرت محمدرضا شاه پهلوی; October 26, 1919 – July 27, 1980) also knows as Aryamehr, was the last Shah of Iran, ruling from 1941 until... One of the worlds longest-lasting monarchies, the Iranian monarchy went through many transformations over the centuries, from the days of Persia to the creation of what is now modern day Iran. ...

He is a patron and former vice president of the Motor Neurone Disease Association charity, as well as being a patron of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, East Anglia's Children's Hospices, the Home Farm Trust and the Elton John Aids Foundation^[1]. The Motor Neurone Disease Association (MNDA) is a British charity established in 1979 by a group of volunteers to coordinate care, support, and research for people affected by motor neurone disease (also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrigs disease). ... Elton John AIDS Foundation is a charity fund that was started by Elton John to help fight HIV, AIDS, and other sexually transmitted diseases. ...

He received a BAFTA Fellowship at the 2005 BAFTA Television awards ceremony, the highest accolade that the British Academy gives. Sir David's latest project is to present a live weekly current affairs programme for Al Jazeera English, the English language version of the Arabic broadcaster, starting when the network launched in November 2006 (see [1]). Al Jazeera English is a 24-hour English-language news and current affairs TV channel headquartered in Doha, Qatar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

After having been in television for 40 years Sir David is worth £20 million^[2]. This valuation includes the assets of his main British company and subsidiaries, plus homes in London and the country.

Criticism

Frost has had numerous critics throughout his career. The satirist and his contemporary Peter Cook disliked him, perhaps because he imitated his act on Beyond The Fringe, impersonating UK Prime Minister Harold Macmillan. (Whilst Cook was performing the act at one theatre, Frost was performing exactly the same act at another.) Frost also offended Alec Douglas-Home by criticising his ability to govern via an impression of Benjamin Disraeli. In later life Home claimed to have been very hurt by this sketch. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Album of Beyond the Fringe Published by EMI in 1996 Beyond the Fringe was a British comedy stage revue written and performed by Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett and Jonathan Miller. ... In the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister is the head of government, exercising many of the executive functions nominally vested in the Sovereign, who is head of state. ... Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986), was a British Conservative politician and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. ... Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel,[1] KT, PC (2 July 1903 - 9 October 1995) 14th Earl of Home from 1951 to 1963, was a British Conservative (actually SUP) politician, and served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for a year from October 1963 to October... Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (December 21, 1804 - April 24, British Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and author. ...

Though Frost demonstrated a great deal of respect for Cook, Cook was critical of Frost's career, feeling he had done little more than stolen Cook's early image. Cook often claimed tongue in cheek that the biggest mistake he had ever made was saving Frost from drowning in a swimming pool. Further borrowing of comedy material from others caused Beyond The Fringe performer Jonathan Miller to dub Frost 'the bubonic plagiarist'. For these reasons and others the satirical magazine Private Eye has been a persistent critic of Frost, particularly during the 1970s. Sir Jonathan Wolfe Miller, CBE (born 21 July 1934) is a British neurologist, theatre and opera director, television presenter, humourist and sculptor. ... Private eye may mean: Look up Private eye on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Private Eye a fortnightly British satirical magazine-newspaper, edited by Ian Hislop (as of 2005) A private investigator, a private detective for hire (see also crime fiction and detective fiction) Private Eye, a song by Alkaline Trio...

The members of Monty Python, many of whom had worked for Frost, showed heavy disdain toward their former colleague. (At one instance they tried to display Frost's home telephone number on the air.) A particularly biting example of Python's views on Frost was 'Timmy Williams Coffee Time': a Frost facsimile named Timmy Williams (played by Eric Idle) meets with a recently widowed friend (Terry Jones) for coffee and pays far more attention to the surrounding television crews, newspaper and magazine reporters, and other sycophants than to his friend's desperate situation. The sketch ends with a fake credit scroll, crediting the show as 'written entirely' by Williams with dozens upon dozens of names listed as 'contributing writers' - an allusion to the feeling that Frost himself received far more credit than the actual writers of his programs. Monty Python, or The Pythons, is the collective name of the creators of Monty Pythons Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. ... Eric Idle (born March 29, 1943) is a British comedian, actor, author and writer of comedic songs. ... Terence Graham Parry Jones (born in Colwyn Bay, Wales, on February 1, 1942) is a British comedian, screenwriter and actor, film director, childrens author, popular historian, political commentator and TV documentary host. ...

Kitty Muggeridge (wife of Malcolm Muggeridge) made the observation that Frost 'rose without trace' (meaning that he had achieved fame for no reason). Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge (March 24, 1903–November 14, 1990) was a British journalist, author, satirist, media personality, soldier-spy and Christian scholar. ...

Frost was a regular target of the radio comedy I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, his smarmy 'hello, good evening, and welcome' presentational style being lampooned particularly by John Cleese. Im Sorry, Ill Read That Again was a long-running radio comedy programme that originally grew out of the Cambridge University revue Cambridge Circus. ... John Marwood Cleese (born 27 October 1939) is an Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award winning English comedian and actor. ...

In the early 1970s Simon Dee was critical of Frost and accused him of sabotaging his chat show Dee Time: Frost was a shareholder at London Weekend Television and his show aired immediately before Dee Time. Simon Dee in the film, Doctor in Trouble (1970) Carl Nicholas Henty-Dodd* (born July 28, 1935) is better known by his stage name Simon Dee. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

In addition Frost's interview style of late has been described as sycophantic and markedly different from his performances in the 1960s and 1970s which almost bordered on verbal bullying - it was from such fiery encounters the phrase 'trial by television' was supposedly popularised. This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...

External links

• BBC News Profile of David Frost
• TV Cream on Paradine Productions

References

1. ^ Who's Who In Charities 2007, CaritasData (ISBN 1-904964-27-3)
2. ^ Sunday Times Rich List 2006-2007, A & C Black (ISBN 978-0713679410)