The Frost Report
| The Frost Report | |
|---|---|
 Cleese, Barker and Corbett |
|
| Genre | Comedy |
| Written by | Graham Chapman Marty Feldman John Law |
| Presented by | David Frost |
| Country of origin |  United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 29 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | BBC |
| Original run | 1 March 1966 – 1 June 1967 |
The Frost Report was a satirical television show hosted by David Frost. It ran for 29 episodes from 1966 to 1967. It is most notable for introducing John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett to television and also launching the careers of several comedians and performers.
The main cast were Frost, Corbett, Cleese, Barker, Sheila Steafel and Nicky Henson. Musical interludes were provided by Julie Felix, while Tom Lehrer also performed a few songs in a few episodes.
The writing staff chosen for The Frost Report were, in many ways, the finest comedic minds of the 1960s United Kingdom, consisting of many writers and performers who would go on to make names for themselves in comedy. They included future Goodies members Bill Oddie and Tim Brooke-Taylor, and also Frank Muir, Denis Norden, Barry Cryer, Marty Feldman, Ronnie Barker, Ronnie Corbett, Dick Vosburgh, Anthony Jay (Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister) and future Python members Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. It was while working on The Frost Report, in fact, that the future Pythons developed their unique writing styles that would become so significant later.
A special one-off episode was broadcast on Easter Monday (24 March) 2008. It ran for ninety minutes being followed by a full episode featuring the classic Cleese/Barker/Corbett class sketch.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Archive status
Around half of the episodes produced (14 episodes out of 29) are still missing from the BBC archives, according to www.lostshows.com, including most of series two.
[edit] Similar shows
David Frost hosted similar comedy shows with similar casts. These included Frost on Sunday in 1968 with the two Ronnies, Josephine Tewson and Sam Costa. Frost on Saturday in 1968. There was a reunion show The Frost Report is Back in 2008. [2]
[edit] "Lord Privy Seal"
A sketch in The Frost Report is responsible for the term "Lord Privy Seal", in the British television industry, to mean the practice of matching too literal imagery with every element of the accompanying spoken script. In the sketch, the practice was taken to an extreme by backing a "news report" about the Lord Privy Seal (a senior Cabinet official) with images, in quick succession, of a lord, a privy, and a seal balancing a ball on its nose. Richard Dawkins mentioned the practice in a film review.[3]
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Lord
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Privy
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Seal
[edit] References
- ^ "BBC revives 1960s satirical show". BBC. 2008-02-16. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7248432.stm. Retrieved 2008-02-16.
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0296484/
- ^ http://richarddawkins.net/articles/2394
[edit] External links
- The Frost Report at BBC Online Comedy Guide
- British Film Institute Screen Online
- Detailed information on The Frost Report on the Pre-Python Series page of the Origin of Monty Python website
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