File 24 - David Frost

1 minidisc, 1 cd, 1 file, 1 AIFF file (482.1 MB)

Interview with David Frost, rugby union correspondent for the Guardian. Conducted by Martin Rose on 6 December 2001. Also includes a data sheet containing biographical details about the subject and information about the recording.

Summary contents of interview (with rough timings):

Disc 1:
Track 1
00.30 Joined the Guardian in 1957 as a sports sub in Manchester, became rugby correspondent in 1966
02.05 Educated at Oxford and played Rugby twice for them
04.00 Worked at a school in France for a year
06.10 After a year teaching back in London saw a job advertised for a sporting sub-editor at the Guardian
06.30 Interviews with Larry Montague, Alastair Hetherington and Bill Taylor
07.00 'Complete fluke' that he became a journalist
07.45 Started going to rugby on Saturdays
09.30 Transition from sub to rugby correspondent

10.25 First person sent to cover a Lions tour
12.45 'We saw things the players did which we wouldn't dream of reporting…and they saw things we did which they wouldn't spread around'.
13.30 Never officially appointed rugby correspondent.
14.30 Hoped for a pay raise after memo went around saying specialists would be given a raise - didn't get it
16.30 Expenses: never excessive at the Guardian, unlike correspondents from other papers
17.30 Moved to London in 1969
18.00 Continued to sub whilst doing rugby
18.00 Robert Armstrong took over as rugby correspondent in 1987
18.30 Heavy workload
19.45 Talks about size of sports dept./no. of pages produced at various points

21.00 1966-1987 Frost was 'no. 1 rugby correspondent' for the Guardian
21.20 Went on 7 Lions' tours - saw the world
24.10 Rugby pranks
25.30 Change in 'culture' of rugby - pranks to clean cut image
26.15 Levels of contact with office whilst on tour.
26.30 First tour: Cabled copy home, never heard from office, never saw the paper.
27.00 Changes in technology over time

32.00 Doesn't understand computers
32.45 Left Guardian in 1994. Mike Averis became sports editor
33.30 Changes witnessed between 1957 and 1994
35.45 Major events he witnessed 'from the office'
38.00 Accidentally in charge of sports desk on first night of London printing
39.00 Having left Guardian, not been involved in rugby

40.30 Fond memories of life at Guardian - lent him money to buy a house in Manchester
40.30 Generous employers, but didn't pay much

Access to recording ovia GNM Digital Repository

Copyright: Guardian News & Media Ltd and David Frost