(October 14, 2012) – Al Jazeera English has unveiled a new format for Sir David Frost’s high-profile interviews on the channel.
The veteran interviewer has been with the channel since its launch in 2006, interviewing a host of politicians and celebrities in a weekly magazine format, Frost Over The World.
The new format, The Frost Interview, takes Sir David back to his roots as an in-depth interviewer of extraordinary depth and intimacy. Each one-hour episode will be devoted to a single world-leading personality in the arts, science, politics or business, opening up his or her life to Sir David.
The series will include interviews with:
- Sir Paul McCartney – one of the most successful musicians of all time
- Archbishop Desmond Tutu – anti-apartheid legend and Nobel Peace Prize laureate
- Munib Al Masri – billionaire Palestinian businessman and politician
- Jose Ramos-Horta – hero of East Timor’s struggle for independence from Indonesia
- Aishwarya Rai – Bollywood, and increasingly worldwide, icon
- Marc Andreessen – Silicon Valley pioneer, co-author of Mosaic, the first widely used internet browser, and co-founder of Netscape
- Craig Venter – biologist and entrepreneur who was one of the first scientists to sequence the human genome
- Carlos Acosta – described as the most successful ballet dancer of our generation. He rose from the slums of Havana to perform with some of the world’s greatest companies including the Bolshoi, American Ballet Theatre, and the Royal Ballet.
Paul Eedle, director of programmes at Al Jazeera English said:
“The new format allows for a much deeper conversation with globally renowned figures than our past format of five to 10-minute chats. People open up to Sir David as to no other interviewer in the world, so we’re delighted to be working with him on the new programme.”
Sir David Frost said:
“I’m immensely enjoying making this series. We’ve got a fantastic mix of individuals lined up that will entertain and inform viewers. I’ve found the longer conversation not just allows us to go into more depth, but relaxes interviewees to talk more about their life and work.”
‘The Frost Interview’ will begin on November 9th with Paul McCartney.
Since starting with Al Jazeera in 2006, Frost has interviewed many high-profile figures on the channel including: Tony Blair, George HW Bush, Tayyip Erdogan, George Clooney, Robert De Niro, Amitabh Bachan, Shane Warne, Roger Federer and Martina Navratilova.
[END]Biography of Sir David Frost
“He is the only person to have interviewed the last seven Presidents of the United States and the last seven Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom” (The Times)
Sir David Frost’s activities during his career have been so diverse that he has been described as a “one man conglomerate”. It is easy to see why: host and co-creator of That Was the Week That Was, producer of countless television programmes from A Gift of Song: The Music for UNICEF Concert to the Spectacular World of Guinness Records; author of 17 books; producer of eight films (including “Rogue Trader” with Ewan McGregor and AnnaFriel); publisher, lecturer, impresario and the joint founder of London Weekend Television and TV-am. Not to mention the fact that he is perhaps the best known television interviewer in the world.
Sir David’s Nixon Interviews achieved “the largest audience for a news interview in history” (New York Times). In addition to their unprecedented impact in the United States, the interviews were also seen – either in English or dubbed into local languages – in almost every television nation in the world. Peter Morgan’s play, “Frost/Nixon”, achieved great success in London in 2007 and on Broadway in 2007, where Frank Langella won the Tony Award for Best Actor as Richard Nixon. Ron Howard’s highly-acclaimed motion picture adaptation of Frost/Nixon in 2008 also garnered 5 Oscar nominations.
Sir David Frost has been awarded all the major television awards – the US Emmy Award (for The David Frost Show – twice); the Royal Television Society Silver Medal and the RichardDimbleby Award in the UK and, internationally, the Golden Rose of Montreux. He was knighted by HM The Queen in the New Year’s Honours List of January 1993. He washonoured by the Museum of the Moving Image in New York in 1998 and by the Museum of Broadcasting in New York in 1999.
In the year 2000 the BBC devoted an evening of programmes to celebrating “Forty Years with Frost”. The first volume of his autobiography “From Congregations to Audiences”, published by HarperCollins, became an immediate bestseller. In 2005, he was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship, their highest honour. And in 2009 in New York he received the International Emmy Founders Award, which is their highest honour.
Sir David’s company Paradine is also executive producing a remake of the film ‘TheDambusters’ which will be directed and produced by Peter Jackson, and has just completed ‘Retreat’ a David Paradine production starring Cillian Murphy, Thandie Newton and Jamie Bell.