‘Frost Vs Richard Nixon' review: The Real Frost/Nixon story is far more riveting than the film version
But it wasn't history – it was entertainment. It exaggerated some things and made others up for dramatic effect. For instance, Nixon never made a drunken, soul-bearing late-night phone call to Frost the night before the final interview.
Frost Vs Richard Nixon (Sky Documentaries, Wednesday, May 14, 9pm), the latest episode in the retrospective series David Frost Vs… about Frost's career, is the best of the lot.
What the play/film did get right was that Frost's career was in the doldrums at the time. His New York-based TV show had been cancelled in 1972. He went from being a nightly presence on screen to nothing.
The episode uses excellent archive footage and talking heads to vividly illustrate the incredibly risky gamble Frost took.
His career had imploded. He was reduced to presenting drivel like the Guinness World Records TV show, supplementing his media earnings with speaking engagements. One, recalls his former partner Caroline Cushing Graham, was for a dental convention.
Deep down, he was quite worried about what was going to happen in the future
'The truth is he was struggling at that time and there were a few people who were saying, 'Frost is yesterday's business',' says his former business partner Michael Rosenberg. 'Deep down, he was quite worried about what was going to happen in the future.'
Grabbing an exclusive with Nixon would be his ticket back to the big time. It was an extremely expensive ticket. CBS had offered $350,000 to secure an interview with Nixon.
Frost outbid the network by offering Nixon, who was basically broke, a massive $600,000, paid out of his own pocket, plus 20pc of any advertising revenue. The production would cost $2m in total.
If Frost wasn't to end up penniless, he needed to recoup his investment through advertising. None of the big three networks would show the interviews, meaning major advertisers wouldn't go near them either.
Frost, existing on hearty breakfasts and little or no sleep, buzzed around the US, courting 168 local TV stations to carry the shows.
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Shortly before the Nixon encounter, Frost was interviewed by CBS doyen Mike Wallace, who'd wanted to be the one to interview the former president.
A clip shows Wallace, who was clearly irked at being scooped by Frost, sneering at his comment that he expected a 'cascade of candour' from Nixon, and mocking an advert for a garden strimmer called the Weed Eater, which would run during the interviews.
Like the rest of the US media establishment, Wallace regarded Frost as a lightweight who wasn't up to the job of grilling Nixon.
The Nixon camp knew better, with an aide warning that, far from lobbing puffball questions at the former president, Frost was 'gonna be one tough bastard'.
Initially, it looked like Frost's detractors were right. He opened the first interview by asking Nixon why he didn't burn the Watergate tapes – a wrong move that allowed Nixon to waffle on for 20 minutes.
It was mercilessly ridiculed in a Saturday Night Live sketch featuring Eric Idle, a close friend of Frost's.
But over the course of the next few days, the tide turned. Frost lets Nixon ramble on about his foreign policy. In their final encounter, by which time Nixon has been lulled into a false sense of security, Frost pounces.
For the first time, Nixon had said something that would be a headline
We see him theatrically tossing aside his clipboard and suggesting Nixon had committed illegal acts. This elicits the infamous comment: 'When the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.'
'For the first time, Nixon had said something that would be a headline,' says Frost's son Wilfred. But, he adds, Frost had to get Nixon to admit wrongdoing. 'Without that, the rest was irrelevant.'
Nixon, cornered by documented evidence of his years-long campaign to undermine his enemies, utters the now famous words: 'I let down my friends, I let down the country, I let down our system of government. I let the American people down and I'll have to carry that burden for the rest of my life.'
Not quite an admission of illegality, maybe, but an admission of duplicity.
Frost was back at the very top of the television tree.
Rating: Four stars
Frost Vs Richard Nixon, Sky Documentaries, Wednesday, May 14, 9pm.
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