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Surprised that the death of Sir David Frost has not had a mention on here.
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I wondered if it would be, but I've always thought of him as a bit of a luvvie. He was well regarded in the trade but I don't think he garnered much following among the great unwashed. He got on my nerves, to be honest.
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No offence intended but I seriously thought this was the first post about winter tyres.
Shows what a dummo I am...its been cool & windy up here today, and I had no idea he had died.
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In the early sixties I saw quite a few of his TW3 programmes live at the White City TV centre.
SWMBO and our friends were very impressed at the whole new approach.
This evening when discussing Frost my son had a completely different take on him.
This was because the programmes Frost was often later involved in were lightweight like Through the Keyhole and these were the ones my son remembered.
I guess your opinion may well depend on when you saw him live.
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Never a fan. Too sharp, too much of a "I'm very clever and going to show you are not" approach. (It may not have been that of course but that is how he came over to me).
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"^^ What he said."
Ditto - and for most of the other comments above that expressed similar sentiments.
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"I'm very clever and going to show you are not" approach.
But of he course he was and did.
He really did change the way politicians are interviewed in this country. He asked the question viewers wanted to ask and more importantly got answers. Of course his later career was more about celebrity than serious political reporting but at his peak he was brilliant. The Nixon interviews were compelling television. (Made a great film too!)
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>> Never a fan.
He always dressed smartly, and that counts for a lot in my book.
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So did John Drewe, L'es.
Book, cover.
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>> Never a fan.
Nor me. Can't recall anything I've watched with him being in it, other than "oh god it's him, time to turn over to the other side and see whats on instead"
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He looked down his nose and talked through it most of the time.
His speech intonation was terrible, too.
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I liked im doing "This Is Your life" ... or was that Amen Andrews.
:}
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Never liked him, thought it was just me.
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"Never liked him, thought it was just me"
Alas, I realise that I feel that way about quite a few t.v. 'personalities' e.g. Bruce Forsyth, Bill Oddie - in particular, I guess, the ones who don't know when to call it a day.
And I haven't met anyone yet who thought that Jimmy Savile was even tolerable at any stage.
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Its true. Many years ago I worked at Stoke Mandeville and nobody liked him.
I really do not like Bill Oddie. Or Brian Blessed.
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Back in May the BBC showed a programme about the history and development of the comedy sketch show. Good stuff, with some well-chosen examples and excellent guests, including Stephen Fry. But every so often, up would pop Sir David in a too-loud-for-TV shirt and give a jarring piece to camera in that grating voice.
Perhaps it's a generational thing. Those remembering him this morning seemed genuinely affectionate, but they knew him in the 1960s when he seemed sharp and new, and I didn't become aware of him until the 1980s, when he was already a figure of fun.
Mrs Beest thinks Seamus Heaney is a greater cultural loss, and I'm inclined to agree.
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I haven't liked anybody on TV since Tommy Cooper.
Bah!
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I used to work off Langham Street near the BBC and I often drank at the Yorkshire Grey. I saw Bill Oddie, Tim Wotsit and Graeme Thingy in there once.
I've got nothing at all to say about Frost.
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Very clever intervieuwer can't say the most likeable character.R.I.P.
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Froggers was the anchorman of TW3 and from there eeled his way up his own particular greasy pole 'rising without trace' as someone put it. He was sharp sure enough, but had no gifts of personality or high comic talent. Hardly surprising that contemporaries more louche and talented sometimes resented his growing power and success.
I've only seen him once, at a party in Little Venice in the seventies, friend of herself's house at the time. On the way in we passed these three suits conspiring grimly with each other in the entrance hall. One was unmistakably Froggers. I didn't see him inside at the party proper.
The obits have been flattering about his interviewing skills, which were heavily dependent I think on 'mise en scène', the management and manipulation of the victim. But they have also said he was unfailingly good-humoured and didn't bear grudges. I don't see why that shouldn't be true. I'd probably be good-humoured too if I were rich and powerful and knew everyone.
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>> three suits conspiring grimly with each other in the entrance hall. One was unmistakably Froggers
I should have made the point that this is the behaviour of a hard-working, driven individual. The sort of person who can keel over from a sudden heart attack when not all that old.
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I see David Jacobs has also gone today. I have vague recollection of Juke Box Jury...
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Frost wont like someone muscling in on his moment.
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>> wont like someone muscling in on his moment.
It won't happen. David Frost has already had the front-page colour large portraits. David Jacobs won't get them, may not make the front page at all, but no big portrait anyway.
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David Jacobs spoke received 'bourgeois' English. That raises another point about Frost and his relentless rise: unlike most of his early fellow satirists, he spoke with a slightly 'common' twang, in keeping with the 'classlessness' everyone faffed about in the sixties in a confused sort of way.
These days Belgravia Cockney is the accent of choice for many, including one or two royals... Samantha Cameron's version is really painful, almost as bad as the one projected by Marlene Dietrich in that terrible movie in which she played a prostitute whose face had been disfigured by a bad person.
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>> I see David Jacobs has also gone today. I have vague recollection of Juke Box
>> Jury...
>>
Sad to hear that.. was a good customer of mine going back a (good) few years...
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Frost - Robin O'Reliant
