New Delhi: With at least 10,000 interviews to his credit as a journalist and television presenter, Sir David Frost has spent four decades doing what he enjoys best. He’s interviewed every British prime minister since Harold Wilson, who served two terms in the 1960s and 70s, and all but the latest of US presidents since Richard Nixon, who resigned in 1974 over the Watergate scandal. His interview with Nixon was the subject of a popular play that was turned into a movie, Frost/Nixon. And President Barack Obama is high up on Frost’s wishlist.
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On a visit to India, the 70-year-old Frost, currently engaged with the Al Jazeera network for a show called Frost Over the World, spoke to Mint about his most memorable interviews, the Indian elections and the future of journalism. Edited excerpts:
After 40 years of interviewing, what stays with you?
Obviously one would be the Nixon interviews—Frost/Nixon—because of the impact they had and also because of the scale—28 and three quarter hours of interviewing. I don’t think anyone has ever talked to anyone for 28 and three quarters. (We did it over) 12 days on Monday, Wednesday and Friday for four weeks.
How did you manage to convince him to sit with you for that long?
I think that he wanted to do something comprehensive and then I had to push him to do more. They were talking of 12 hours maximum and then I pushed him for 24 and that was a contractual commitment (on) the length…we needed a bit more time and we ended up doing 28 and three quarter hours.
Global stint: David Frost says it’s very difficult to have anything off the record during an interview because that sort of thing won’t get you far. Harikrishna Katragadda / Mint
It was a fascinating experience. Monday, Wednesday, Friday was so that he had a day off in between and we could review what we had talked, go through the transcript and you have to be careful with transcripts because sometimes you get a person doing them (who) makes a modest slip up.
I remember reading the transcript one day and it said, Nixon said, “Then of course I withdrew 50,000 troops after I met you at Midway (island near Hawaii).” Well, I hadn’t been to Midway. So we went back to the tapes because none of us remembered him saying that. Of course, what he’d said was “after I met Thieu (president Nguyen Van Thieu of South Vietnam) at Midway”!
The thing about Nixon interviews was that people said it was impossible. It would be impossible to get him to a level…you know to get material out of him. In the end, his mea culpa went further than even we had hoped.
The first time I met (South African leader) Nelson Mandela would be one that I would mention (among my top interviews).