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Sir Clement Freud dies aged 84

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    Sir Clement Freud dies aged 84

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8001383.stm

    Broadcaster and former Liberal MP Sir Clement Freud has died aged 84.

    A statement from his family said Sir Clement had died on Wednesday evening at his London home.

    He is survived by his wife of 59 years, the actress Jill Freud, five children and 17 grandchildren. His funeral will be held next week.

    A grandson of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, Sir Clement had a varied career as a cookery expert, press columnist and radio game show contestant.

    Renowned for his lugubrious expression and mournful voice, he was a regular panellist on the BBC's Just a Minute for more than 30 years.

    Comedian Tony Hawks, another regular on the long-running Radio 4 show, remembered him being a "formidable" character.

    "I had listened to the show as a boy, so meeting him was like meeting a hero," he told BBC Breakfast.

    "You always knew he would be a challenging performer. Through his great intellect he'd always bring out the best in you."

    Writer and broadcaster Stephen Fry has also paid tribute, remembering Sir Clement as an "immensely generous, benevolent and charming man".

    "My favourite memory is of him in full flow on Just a Minute, still able to trip up people a quarter of his age," he told Radio 4's Today programme.

    Idiosyncratic

    Born in 1924, the young Clement Freud began his career in the hotel business before turning to journalism.

    He started writing on cookery for newspapers and magazines in the 1950s, later expanding into a variety of subjects, including sport.

    His idiosyncratic pet food commercials with Henry the dog, first broadcast in the 1960s, launched him on a long career as a television and radio personality.

    Ten years later he transferred to North East Cambridgeshire, a seat he held until 1987. He was knighted the same year.

    Sir Clement worked for a string of titles, including the Observer, the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express.

    Last year he wrote about his death in The Times, claiming his relatives would want to inherit his wine.

    "I took my children around our flat in turns to glean who wanted to have what when we died," he wrote.

    "They all wanted all the wine, my wife's desk, my collection of cookery books and the same picture, so that will be no trouble."
    Where are we going? And what’s with this hand basket?

    #2
    Anecdote from Radio 4 this morning...

    ...as an MP, he was visiting China on a parliamentary junket with a group of other MPs including the grandson of Winston Churchill, also called Winston Churchill. He was told that nothing in China happens by accident, every action has a reason behind it.

    One evening at the bar with Winston Churchill he noticed that he was getting smaller drinks, and then found out that he was staying in a smaller room. So he said to the Chinese representative looking after them that he understood that nothing in China happens by accident and that he must be getting less favourable treatment than his fellow MP because he is not a member of the government. The representative said "oh no Mr Freud, it is because Mr Churchill has a very famous grand father".

    Clement was quoted as saying that that was the only time he had ever been "out-grand fathered".

    Rest in peace.

    Comment


      #3
      I had no idea that he was that old.

      He did very well on that show for an old buggar.

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