Westminster Abbey honour for Kent broadcasting veteran Sir David Frost famous for Watergate scandal Nixon interview
00:01, 13 March 2014
A service to celebrate the life and work of Sir David Frost will take place at Westminster Abbey at noon today.
The Prince of Wales and Lady Carina Frost will lay flowers on a memorial stone to the renowned broadcaster.
It means the lifelong Gillingham football fan will join Charles Dickens in the hallowed space, alongside Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare.
Sir David, who died suddenly on a cruise ship last year, was born in Tenterden but grew up in Gillingham and attended Barnsole Primary School before going to the former Gillingham Grammar School, now Robert Napier school.
Also expected to attend the service will be David Cameron and former British prime ministers.
Readings will be given by actress Joanna Lumley and former BBC director general Greg Dyke.
It will honour the broadcaster, whose career involved hosting 1960s satire programmes, interviewing Richard Nixon after the Watergate scandal and presenting Through The Keyhole.
Sir David is only the second broadcaster after Sir Richard Dimbleby to be given the accolade at the abbey.
The idea for the memorial came from John Hall, the Dean of Westminster.
Sir David retained strong links to Kent throughout his journalistic career and he received an honorary degree from the University of Kent at Rochester Cathedral in 2008.