MSNBC Taps David Frost Archives for Documentary Series ‘David Frost Vs.’
By Brian Steinberg
Wilfred Frost is getting ready to put much of his family business on public display.
Frost, who may best be known for his anchor turns on both CNBC in the U.S., and Sky News, is also CEO of Paradine Productions, the production vehicle founded in 1961 by his father, the renowned journalist and interviewer Sir David Frost. Starting Sunday, April 27, MSNBC will air “David Frost Vs,” a six-part documentary series that examines seismic changes in culture using decades’ of the senior Frost’s legendary interviews with everyone from The Beatles to Muhammad Ali.
“These are moments in history where he had a front-row seat,” says Wilfred Frost, during a recent interview. “This is not an archive show.”
The series will examine themes such as civil rights, college protests and cultural revolution, using Frost’s archive of more than 10,000 interviews with figures who were celebrated or controversial, and sometimes both. Some of the footage has not been seen in decades, and some of it has never been viewed in public. The senior Frost may best be known in the U.S. for his 1977 series of interviews with former President Richard Nixon that served as the basis for a play and the 2008 film, “Frost/Nixon.” Yet over the course of his career, he conducted hundreds of interviews with prominent figures that ranged from top athletes to musicians to heads of state.
Wilfred Frost took over lead duties at his father’s production company after his death in 2013. The younger Frost says he has spent years trying to put the bulk of his father’s work under a single production umbrella. This new project, he says, “has taken me a long time. The first half of that period of time was me, you know, rebuilding the archive and buying back rights and then restoring and logging a lot of the old footage, particularly the 60s and 70s stuff that he did in America. I got that back and got rights from CBS, and then had to digitize, had to restore it all. I was ready to pitch things by 2018.”
Each hour-long episode of “David Frost Vs.” is anchored around interviews with a key personality over several decades, including Ali, Jane Fonda, Elton John, and, of course, Nixon.. The footage is supplemented by interviews with contributors including Michael Sheen, Liam Neeson, Joanna Lumley, and Khalilah Ali, all of whom put Frost’s work and life in context. President Bill Clinton and U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair both recently contributed commentary for an episode that will examine conflict in the Middle East, with Frost interviewing Yasser Arafat, Menachem Begin, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other key players.
What’s amazing about the interviews is that Frost was able to talk to these personalities many times over a longer arc of time. That means viewers will see Muhammad Ali and members of the Beatles over different periods of their careers, and the longer association yields conversations that may not take place with journalists who have not maintained contact with their subjects.
The new series is part of a broader effort launched in 2020 by MSNBC to build a roster of longer-form documentaries and non-fiction series that appeal to its audiences. As traditional TV viewers become harder to lure, many media companies are venturing into documentaries, which they can air as “event” programming. CNN was early to dip its toes into the space, launching series from Anthony Bourdain and films that examined animals in captivity and the life of Linda Ronstadt ABC News in 2019 turned “20/20” into a showcase for in-depth two-hour probes into everything from the life of actor Robert Blake to the downfall of tele-evangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. And Fox News Channel has crafted documentary series for its Fox Nation streaming service that examine U.S. monuments, national parks, and history, among other topics.
Viewers are likely to encounter some amazing moments in the new series, says Wilfred Frost, including the Beatles playing “Hey Jude” in 1968 for the first time during “Frost on Sunday.” “It’s a euphoric moment right in the middle of the episode, you know, and it’s sort of extraordinary,” he says. The performance also marks the group’s last on TV.
There is also footage of an emotional interview with Elton John from the early 1990s, when the musician is just coming out of rehab after many years of addiction. “It is unbelievably at the rawest possible moment,” Frost says. “I think at times Dad was sort of a confession booth for some of his friends, some of his contacts.”
“David Frost Vs” is a co-production of MSNBC Films and Sky Studios with Paradine Productions and White Horse Pictures for Sky Documentaries and will appear on Sky as well as MSNBC.
Wilfred Frost says he could have used the hours of footage of his father’s interviews to create longer episodes, and believes there’s material that could have been tapped to make more of the programs. “I could make all sorts of extended versions,” he says. “But, you know, I think you want to leave people wanting more.”
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MSNBC Taps David Frost Archives for Documentary Series ‘David Frost Vs.’
Wilfred Frost is getting ready to put much of his family business on public display.
Frost, who may best be known for his anchor turns on both CNBC in the U.S., and Sky News, is also CEO of Paradine Productions, the production vehicle founded in 1961 by his father, the renowned journalist and interviewer Sir David Frost. Starting Sunday, April 27, MSNBC will air “David Frost Vs,” a six-part documentary series that examines seismic changes in culture using decades’ of the senior Frost’s legendary interviews with everyone from The Beatles to Muhammad Ali.
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“These are moments in history where he had a front-row seat,” says Wilfred Frost, during a recent interview. “This is not an archive show.”
The series will examine themes such as civil rights, college protests and cultural revolution, using Frost’s archive of more than 10,000 interviews with figures who were celebrated or controversial, and sometimes both. Some of the footage has not been seen in decades, and some of it has never been viewed in public. The senior Frost may best be known in the U.S. for his 1977 series of interviews with former President Richard Nixon that served as the basis for a play and the 2008 film, “Frost/Nixon.” Yet over the course of his career, he conducted hundreds of interviews with prominent figures that ranged from top athletes to musicians to heads of state.
Wilfred Frost took over lead duties at his father’s production company after his death in 2013. The younger Frost says he has spent years trying to put the bulk of his father’s work under a single production umbrella. This new project, he says, “has taken me a long time. The first half of that period of time was me, you know, rebuilding the archive and buying back rights and then restoring and logging a lot of the old footage, particularly the 60s and 70s stuff that he did in America. I got that back and got rights from CBS, and then had to digitize, had to restore it all. I was ready to pitch things by 2018.”
Each hour-long episode of “David Frost Vs.” is anchored around interviews with a key personality over several decades, including Ali, Jane Fonda, Elton John, and, of course, Nixon.. The footage is supplemented by interviews with contributors including Michael Sheen, Liam Neeson, Joanna Lumley, and Khalilah Ali, all of whom put Frost’s work and life in context. President Bill Clinton and U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair both recently contributed commentary for an episode that will examine conflict in the Middle East, with Frost interviewing Yasser Arafat, Menachem Begin, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other key players.
What’s amazing about the interviews is that Frost was able to talk to these personalities many times over a longer arc of time. That means viewers will see Muhammad Ali and members of the Beatles over different periods of their careers, and the longer association yields conversations that may not take place with journalists who have not maintained contact with their subjects.
The new series is part of a broader effort launched in 2020 by MSNBC to build a roster of longer-form documentaries and non-fiction series that appeal to its audiences. As traditional TV viewers become harder to lure, many media companies are venturing into documentaries, which they can air as “event” programming. CNN was early to dip its toes into the space, launching series from Anthony Bourdain and films that examined animals in captivity and the life of Linda Ronstadt ABC News in 2019 turned “20/20” into a showcase for in-depth two-hour probes into everything from the life of actor Robert Blake to the downfall of tele-evangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. And Fox News Channel has crafted documentary series for its Fox Nation streaming service that examine U.S. monuments, national parks, and history, among other topics.
Viewers are likely to encounter some amazing moments in the new series, says Wilfred Frost, including the Beatles playing “Hey Jude” in 1968 for the first time during “Frost on Sunday.” “It’s a euphoric moment right in the middle of the episode, you know, and it’s sort of extraordinary,” he says. The performance also marks the group’s last on TV.
There is also footage of an emotional interview with Elton John from the early 1990s, when the musician is just coming out of rehab after many years of addiction. “It is unbelievably at the rawest possible moment,” Frost says. “I think at times Dad was sort of a confession booth for some of his friends, some of his contacts.”
“David Frost Vs” is a co-production of MSNBC Films and Sky Studios with Paradine Productions and White Horse Pictures for Sky Documentaries and will appear on Sky as well as MSNBC.
Wilfred Frost says he could have used the hours of footage of his father’s interviews to create longer episodes, and believes there’s material that could have been tapped to make more of the programs. “I could make all sorts of extended versions,” he says. “But, you know, I think you want to leave people wanting more.”
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