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In May 1972, British broadcaster David Frost found out that his US chat show was about to be axed, halting his decade-long rise in TV. A few weeks later, a burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington DC heralded the start of the seismic political scandal that would eventually result in US president Richard Nixon’s resignation. In 1977, the two men would meet for a series of candid televised conversations in which Nixon hoped to salvage his reputation. Instead, it was Frost who reestablished his standing as a peerless interviewer.
The second instalment of David Frost Vs, a Sky documentary series put together by Frost’s son Wilfred, begins with an account of that memorable encounter with the disgraced former president. Featuring well-chosen archive clips, glimpses of hitherto unseen behind-the-scenes chats and contemporary commentary from Nixon’s then-aides (as well as Ron Howard and Michael Sheen, director and star of 2008’s Frost/Nixon), the episode offers an insightful anatomy of an interview — and a portrait of the interviewer.
Frost was evidently a forensic, fearless interrogator, but what also emerges in these illustrative excerpts is his deftness and timing. There are moments for needling questions, but also for listening, waiting and giving space to a prevaricating subject to let their unguarded thoughts emerge. At other points we see Frost take the lead and attempt to create intimacy through personal conversation rather than probing. Nixon’s famous admission that he “let the American people down” comes immediately after Frost casts his clipboard aside, leans in and speaks straight to the burdened conscience he spots amid Nixon’s bluster.
A second episode traces Frost’s on-screen exchanges and off-camera friendship with Elton John. By comparison, it feels like an anticlimax but it recognises how Frost conducted his work with grace and good faith at a time of tabloid sensationalism. The series concludes with a survey of Frost’s robust yet invariably impartial decades-spanning coverage of Israel-Palestine. While this episode too often loses sight of Frost himself amid a wider contextualisation of the conflict, it does showcase his diplomatic instincts and conviction in the power of open discussion.
Conversations with the likes of Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat and Israel’s prime minister Yitzhak Rabin serve as a poignant time capsule of when peace seemed possible. Meanwhile a clip from a 2001 interview with Benjamin Netanyahu, in which Frost challenges him on Israel’s recent military aggression and speculates on how it might reverberate through the years, proves grimly prescient.
In the present, Bill Clinton and Tony Blair both pay tribute to one of the journalists they most trusted and admired. “You never got the feeling with David that he thought he was extraordinarily important,” says Blair. This documentary reminds us that behind that humility was a broadcasting titan.
★★★★☆
On Sky Documentaries and NOW from May 14 at 9pm
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