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And few who work on Frost's programmes are allowed to forget it. He's "Sir David", and make-up artists and floor managers had better remember that. But for every snide whisper, there's a loyal and supportive colleague. Barney Jones, who has edited Breakfast with Frost for 12 years, thinks he knows why the professional hacks snipe: "David doesn't have a background in journalism - he's never prepared a news bulletin and doesn't slave away over a terminal for hours on end checking the wires. But it has also led to snobbery and envy - the accusation that the grammar school boy with the flat vowels is also a namedropper and a social climber. The gossip was fuelled when his first marriage, to Peter Sellers's widow Lynne Frederick, lasted barely a year. When he chose Lady Carina Fitzalan-Howard as his second bride a year later, few observers thought it would last.
Twenty-three years later, their marriage remains.Do you think that being a celebrated interviewer is sufficient recognition of the breadth of your talents?Frost's transatlantic reputation reached new heights when in 1977 he persuaded the recently disgraced Richard Nixon to permit Frost's cameras in for a 28-hour session. The five programmes which emerged remain the most watched news interview in history But TV stardom was not enough Frost wanted to be a mogul, too. In 1967 he had been one of the founders of London Weekend Television, and one of the "famous five" founders of TV-am in 1983. The attention he garnered did not go down well with some of his peers: Peter Cook always claimed that his greatest regret in life was in saving Frost from drowning in a swimming pool. However talented his co-presenters over the decades - Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett, John Cleese, Esther Rantzen, Rory Bremner - there was never again to be any doubt about who was the star.Frost's relentless networking and hosting of famous parties has ensured that he maintains the reputation of the man with access. TW3 did not run for long: only just over a year, and Frost's Atlantic journeys began soon after.
Leaving the rest of the team behind, Frost took TW3 to NBC in the US, and it proved a hit there, too.I understand you're hosting a glittering party: Just how many wonderfully famous people will be there to pay homage?With his name established on both sides of the Atlantic, Frost returned to the BBC with The Frost Report and The Frost Programme. Still in his mid-twenties, David had already managed to get his name in the programme title, and it was an honour he would never relinquish. His replacement, Andrew Marr, will doubtless be a far cannier question-phraser. But will he get the guests, or will Breakfast with Marr become just another Sunday show for political anoraks? What's the secret of your success?In one view of the story, David Frost is just plain lucky. He happened to be in the right place at the right time, and that place was Cambridge's Footlights revue at the turn of the Sixties.
