BROADCASTER DAVID FROST was given 12 days to interview former US President Richard Nixon in 1977, five years after the Watergate scandal led to his resignation.
The British journalist, who was often seen as a soft interviewer of royalty and celebrities, dedicated two days of taping to the Watergate debacle.
“We knew that the most tense and gripping sessions would be on Watergate,” he explained in a later documentary looking back at the seminal interview.
“Never before – and never afterwards – would Nixon confront the issue of Watergate.”
‘Tricky Dicky’ was not given access to the questions prior to the interview, nor was he given rights to see the finished product before it went to air.
Frost packaged the interview and sold its contents to television networks across the world.
The subsequent revelations and apology to the American people from Nixon not only led to great television, but were also adapted into a movie in 2008, with Frank Langella as the president and Michael Sheen as Frost.
This was the moment that Frost was waiting for:
(YouTube: willfungku11)
See extended coverage:
(YouTube: gijsgeluid2006)
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