'My father David Frost was the best interviewer – TV now lacks intelligent debate'

In making David Frost vs, the first three episodes of which start on Sunday, I’ve watched countless hours from the more than 10,000 interviews he recorded with presidents, prime ministers and entertainers. But I’ve also watched, read and listened to every interview he ever gave. In 1969, he told an interviewer, "What I value most is the relationship with the audience. That’s my number one thing, really – not to underestimate the public, [which] is much, much more intelligent than it’s usually taken for."

Dad was just 30, a young man working in what was still a black-and-white medium, when he made that statement. Perhaps an element of underestimating the public has crept back into UK broadcasting today. Politicians are often the culprits when they stick to pre-prepared talking points, ignore the questions put to them and pretend they’re not backtracking when they are.

News broadcasters react to what’s happening rather than dictate it. That said, we are all responsible and should fight the urge to interrupt too quickly, to dumb things down, and most of all to make things about ourselves, even when – or perhaps especially when – facing a politician. It’s about our guests and our viewers: we are simply there to connect them.

If a politician slips up in an interview, it’s often more powerful to let that stand than to attack them repeatedly and tell the viewer what they’ve heard. When Dad interviewed segregationist presidential candidate George Wallace, former governor of Alabama, in 1968, Wallace espoused patently racist views – yet Dad calmly asked him to explain why he held those views, rather than try to aggressively conclude, on behalf of the viewer, that he was a racist.

The extraordinary success of podcasters in recent years has highlighted that people do want intelligent debate, authenticity and long-form conversations, which have been strangely hard to find on television for more than a decade now.

I have no doubt that if Dad were around today, he would be innovating on new platforms to connect with his audience. But I’m also sure that he would never walk away from television and its unique ability to broadcast live. He knew live broadcasts were special – there is a jeopardy in not knowing what’s about to happen.

His introduction of studio audiences in 1966 on The Frost Programme, to react to interviews live, was groundbreaking. A gasp, a laugh, or total silence from the audience – these informed him as he pressed his guest for more.

This was the case in 1968, in the first of his 12 interviews with Muhammad Ali, when both men were in their 20s. Dad took strength from the audience’s shock at some of Ali’s most extreme comments on race and felt confident to push back – which he did expertly and firmly, but also with warmth. You have to see it to feel that warmth as a viewer. I have no doubt that Ali sensed it, sitting as close to Dad as he was. This was live television at its best, which no remotely recorded podcast could ever match.

Finally, Dad knew that the interview was ultimately about his guest. I have tried to carry that theme through into David Frost vs, six individual films about crucial moments in our recent history, from the Beatles to Richard Nixon, at which Dad happened to have a front-row seat.

Of course, when the series is finished, it will be a bonus for me if people reflect on what a master of his profession Dad was, as I have taken such pride in doing while making it.

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