Emmy Awards honour for David Frost
Sunday November 22 2009
British TV personality David Frost is being honoured at the 37th Annual International Emmy Awards for a wide-ranging career that has taken him from pioneering political satire on television to conducting serious interviews with former President Richard Nixon and other newsmakers.
US network ABC's Barbara Walters will present the International Emmy Founders Award to Frost at Monday night's awards gala at the Hilton New York Hotel.
The presentation will highlight an evening in which 41 nominees from 17 countries will be competing in 10 categories for International Emmys, honouring excellence in TV programming produced outside the US.
British television productions garnered a leading nine nominations, including the long-running MI5 spy series Spooks for best drama and the TV talent show parody Peter Kay's Got the Pop Factor ... for top comedy.
Other British nominees include actress Julie Walters for her role in A Short Stay in Switzerland, inspired by the true story of a woman who took her own life in a Zurich clinic after being diagnosed with an incurable degenerative disease, and Ben Whishaw for his star turn in the thriller Criminal Justice, about the odyssey of a 21-year-old defendant accused of murder.
The Founders Award has been presented annually since 1980 to a person who "crosses cultural boundaries to touch our common humanity".
Frost, 70, first gained prominence on both sides of the Atlantic in the early 1960s as host of the irreverent groundbreaking satirical programme That Was The Week That Was, which lampooned the political establishment.
Frost later turned to more serious interview-based shows. He holds the distinction of having interviewed all seven British prime ministers serving since 1964 as well as all seven US presidents in office between 1969 and 2008. He currently is hosting the weekly programme Frost Over the World on Al Jazeera English.
Press Association
