1 9 6 8 – 1 9 7 0 (UK)
34 x 50 minute episodes
Made at a time when David Frost was hosting a chat show in the US and then jetting back to the UK to do three shows over the weekend, called (naturally enough) Frost on Friday, Frost on Saturday and Frost on Sunday.
Frost on Sunday concerned itself with the lighter end of the entertainment spectrum.
The fifty-minute show featured numerous sketches from Ronnie Corbett, Ronnie Barker and Josephine Tewson (the latter two fresh from their stint on Hark at Barker) and presented guests such as Morecambe and Wise, Matt Monro, Michael Bentine, Des O’Connor, Ted Ray, Kenneth Williams, Julie Driscoll, Vincent Price, Rolf Harris and Michael Palin as Julie Andrews.
On 8 September 1968, The Beatles appeared on the show (Frost introduced them as “the greatest tea-room orchestra in the world”) and debuted Hey Jude (pictured below).
A number of episodes of Frost on Sunday no longer exist but copies are available of the very first show from 1968 – which fell victim to a union dispute with technical staff and so has no on-screen credits – and several episodes from the second series in 1970, including the edition on 8 March 1970 where the team decamped from their Wembley studios to the London Palladium to present that year’s British Film and Television Awards.
On the final episode (29 March 1970), Frost helped Eamonn Andrews set up Ronnie Corbett for his This Is Your Life appearance, live on the show.