Man of diverse talents who enthralled on ‘Just A Minute’
Sir Clement Freud, who became one of broadcasting's most popular figures, died aged 84 on 15 April, 2009.
His varied career included being one of the first TV chefs, turning to politics as a Liberal MP and radio broadcasting, most notably for his long-running role in the parlour game Just a Minute.
He died on 15 April, 2009, and was survived by his children, PR guru Matthew and Emma, who is also a radio personality.
He was part of a talented family - his grandfather was the renowned psychologist Sigmund Freud, his father a successful architect and his brother the artist Lucian Freud. His nieces Bella and Esther are successful in the field of fashion and literature respectively.
Sir Clement himself was an aide to Field Marshal Montgomery during the Second World War, among Britain's first celebrity chefs, a newspaper columnist, a Member of Parliament, an author of children's books and latterly a quintessential panellist on the long-running radio game Just A Minute.
Clement Raphael Freud was born in Berlin on 24 April, 1924. With his Jewish parents fearing the rise of Nazism, he was educated at St Paul's School in London where he was bullied because of his accent. He later claimed with typical wry humour that all he learnt at school was drinking and gambling.
After serving under Monty in Africa during the war, he got a job in the kitchen of the Dorchester Hotel and then opened his own restaurant.
As his celebrity increased, he was offered columns, TV slots and even co-starred with a bloodhound called Henry in a dog food commercial, a move which did as much to make his name as any of his other exploits.
He also wrote a children's novel about a boy named Grimpel whose parents abandon him for a week for a holiday in Peru.
He appeared on Just a Minute's inaugural broadcast in 1967 and became the show's longest-enduring raconteur, famed for his lucid and erudite monologues and his tendency to flaunt the rules of the game - no "repetition, hesitation or deviation" - with his ironic sense of humour and 42 years of experience.
In his quest to be taken seriously he entered the world of politics as the Liberal Party candidate for the Isle of Ely constituency in Cambridgeshire, holding the seat from a 1973 by-election until 1983, when he was made a knight.
His intellectual weight was recognised with the position of rector at the universities of Dundee and St Andrews in Fife.
He married June Flewett in 1950 who also survived him.
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