MSNBC Taps David Frost Archives for Documentary Series ‘Frost Vs.’

variety.com:

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor 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 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 six-part series, “Frost Vs.,” 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.