"He rose without trace”

And so, farewell, then, David Frost - perhaps the most influential TV personality Britain ever produced.

Facts about Mr Frost:

• His most famous programme That Was The Week That Was was only on UK television screens for one year 1963-3, but transferred briefly to the USA. Its follow-up series The Frost Report launched the television careers of John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett.
• He was a founder of both London Weekend Television and TV-AM, and also carved a successful career as a television interviewer in the US as well as the UK.
• He was the only person to have interviewed all eight British prime ministers serving between 1964 and present (Harold Wilson, Edward Heath, James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and David Cameron) and all seven US presidents in office between 1969 and 2008 (Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Snr, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush).
• He was famous for his high-profile girlfriends, including Janette Scott, Diahann Carroll (to whom he was engaged), Carol Lynley and socialite Caroline Cushing; in 1981 he married Lynne Frederick, widow of Peter Sellers, but they divorced the following year. His widow is Lady Carina Fitzalan-Howard, daughter of the 17th Duke of Norfolk.

RIP Sir David Paradine Frost, OBE (7th April 1939 – 31st August 2013)