Frost on Friday – Nostalgia Central

1 9 6 8 – 1 9 7 0 (UK)
45 minute episodes

“Hello. Good Evening, and Welcome”

David Frost – who had recently signed a contract worth £125,000 with an American TV network to host a chat show in the US – jetted back to the UK each week to do three shows over the weekend for LWT, called (naturally enough) Frost on Friday, Frost on Saturday and Frost on Sunday.

While Frost on Saturday featured interviews with entertainers and public figures and Frost on Sunday concerned itself with the lighter end of the entertainment spectrum, Frost on Friday was the “serious” one, a hard journalistic programme devoted to “people and issues of the moment” – often creating the headlines, as well as reporting on them.

The accent of the show – which debuted on 25 July 1968 – was on topicality, and it was often only hours before the show went to air that a final decision was made about its contents.

Frost’s guests on the live current affairs show – which was broadcast with a live studio audience – included Muhammad Ali, James Callaghan, Enoch Powell, renowned heart surgeon Christiaan Barnard, Israeli general and politician Moshe Dayan, Rhodesian premier Ian Smith, and convicted Nazi war criminal Baldur von Schirach.

David extended the concept with the return of The Frost Programme.