David Frost has died.

[pastoralguy]

Just announced. Looks like he suffered a heart attack.

Such a fixture in most of our lives.

[BBMmk2]

David Frost RIP

Just seen the news that veteran broadcaster David Frost has died of a heart attack. He was 74.

[Mary Chambers]

Exactly the same age as Seamus Heaney, and in Frost's case, I gather, death was completely unexpected. Very sad. I remember That Was The Week That Was quite well, as well as his later work

[Mr Pee]

I liked him on "Through the Keyhole".

[pastoralguy]

I liked him on "Through the Keyhole".

Oh yes. I'd forgotten about that programme. Some lovely homes on show!

[Both threads merged on Platform 3 which has the wider participation ... ff]

[Serial_Apologist]

I remember being very influenced by his unique mod hairstyle - kind of forward combed and either turned up or curled under along the front. That was in the days of TW3 - I was only 15 and back then his political jibes were a bit above my head, but it all seemed very , what with Millie Martin and Cleo Laine scat singing satirically current materials backed by the Johnny Dankworth big band, and me being allowed to stay up a bit later.

Looking back on some clips, either audiences were much more au fait and quick-witted with politics in those days, or they were pretending to be. I think probably the former.

[salymap]

Sad news. 'That was the week' was a very good programme, somehow ahead of its time.

I saw him on TV talking to someone recently - Joan Bakewell I think. She seemed younger than David then I thought.

RIP David Frost.

[Roehre]

Very sad news

apart from all the other brilliant things he did (taking on PMs and American Presidents only one of them), IMHO his "masterpiece" is the Nixon-interviews from 1977. Unrivalled in many respects.

RIP David Frost

[pastoralguy]

I remember being very influenced by his unique mod hairstyle - kind of forward combed and either turned up or curled under along the front. That was in the days of TW3 - I was only 15 and back then his political jibes were a bit above my head, but it all seemed very , what with Millie Martin and Cleo Laine scat singing satirically current materials backed by the Johnny Dankworth big band, and me being allowed to stay up a bit later.

Looking back on some clips, either audiences were much more au fait and quick-witted with politics in those days, or they were pretending to be. I think probably the former.

And, of course, the famous occasion where a disgruntled husband took a swing at Bernard Levin after he had given a poor review to a play his wife appeared in! ( live tv, of course).

[Stillhomewardbound]

I always liked his signature tune. A fine piece of big band swingery penned by George Martin no less:

http://youtu.be/v-B2KAlFLmE

This is the best version I can find and I do apologise for the 'asian babe' on the video. Nothing to do with me, guv!

[Serial_Apologist]

I always liked his signature tune. A fine piece of big band swingery penned by George Martin no less:

http://youtu.be/v-B2KAlFLmE

This is the best version I can find and I do apologise for the 'asian babe' on the video. Nothing to do with me, guv!

As if it could be!!!

I was more upset by the tenor sax soloist quite obviously reading his "improvisation" off the score!

[ahinton]

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2013/09/david-frosts-final-interview-daniel-barenboim.html

This was, I believe, from exactly four weeks ago.

RIP indeed.

[Richard Tarleton]

Thanks for this link!

I remember seeing him and John Wells taking part in a humorous debate in the Oxford Union in the late 60s, almost certainly during the presidency of Giles Brandreth. Both used jokes they'd used before on TV, like Frost's favourite headline ("Peter Scott savaged by duck")......

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I used to drive my mother mad with my impression of the song "Not so much a programme, more a way of life".

[Stillhomewardbound]

Not wishing to detract from his more serious achievements, he was a comic at heart. Only a couple of years ago he presented one of those retrospective interview sessions on Radio 4 all about satire and politics and how each had changed. Among his guests were Lord Healy, Lord Tebbitt and Sir Gerald Kaufman and at one point they got to chatting about the honours they'd achieved in the greater world, but how in the back of a black taxi they were still 'I mean, I'll tell you wot, Dennis' or ' ... and another thing Norman'. Deftly and without missing a beat Frost turned to Kaufman, one of Westminster's most famous egos, and said, 'And I suppose they still call you Sir Gerald ... ' [Huge audience laugh ensued]

It was a great moment and in complete fairness Kaufman was entirely up for being the fall guy.