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I wonder how many people nowadays are aware that his knighthood was awarded for services to politics after his time as a Liberal MP.
He won a by election at Ely in 1973, a constituency that didn’t even have a Liberal candidate in the previous general election. He made great play of the fact that he’d had a bet (reputedly of £100) on himself at 33/1, and that he took over the room above the local hotel that the Tories had already booked for their victory party.
He won again at both the 1974 general elections and remained the MP for the area until 1987. There’s certainly nobody like him in Parliament now, more’s the pity.
A man of many and varied parts, and based on the success of his five children, a damn good sire as well.
RIP
I wonder how many people nowadays are aware that his knighthood was awarded for services to politics after his time as a Liberal MP.
He won a by election at Ely in 1973, a constituency that didn’t even have a Liberal candidate in the previous general election. He made great play of the fact that he’d had a bet (reputedly of £100) on himself at 33/1, and that he took over the room above the local hotel that the Tories had already booked for their victory party.
He won again at both the 1974 general elections and remained the MP for the area until 1987. There’s certainly nobody like him in Parliament now, more’s the pity.
A man of many and varied parts, and based on the success of his five children, a damn good sire as well.
RIP
Not to mention his greatest political achievement in that he was responsible for bringing down the Callaghan government.
I heard one tale told about him by his longtime Just-A-Minute colleague, Peter Jones. For it seems that Sir Clement and Kenneth Williams didn’t get on with one another at all. Indeed, when Kenneth Williams died I seem to recall that he was most definitely dammed by faint praise from Clement Freud.
Peter Jones alleges that on some occasions when Kenneth Williams was in full flow during the recording of a Just-A-Minute broadcast. Clement Freud would lean back in his chair and put his feet up on the table, which would annoy Kenneth Williams no end. When after the recording, Williams would start to audibly complain about the unprofessionalism of what he’d done. Clement Freud’s reply would invariably be along the lines of “What on earth are you complaining about, this is radio, nobody can see it”.
Noted Essayist, Raconteur and Wit
A tombstone epitaph difficult to better
In Clement Freud’s case oh so apt
RIP and thanks for the entertainment old chap
Funnily enough Clement had no real interest in horses and only saw them as a betting medium.
Only a couple a years ago after Eau Good finished third at York when trained by Mark Johnston he immediately removed the horse from the trainer in the unsaddling enclosure after presumably failing to land a gamble for him.Such a funny,dry and well written well spoken man whose Racing Post and Sun Racing column for me was a weekly ritual and never missed.
One thing which i remember Sir Clement for is this episode of Have i Got News for You but you have to go to 7.50 for the Odd One Out Round, If you dont laugh at this then i will be amazed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PygY9XZpajw
Here is another joke
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfK0jUyc … re=related
Sir Clement you will be missed by us all and thank you so much for all the great Racing Post coloumns you have written, Saturdays will never be the same again, Earths Loss is Heavens Gain.
A great shame, very sad news indeed.
On refection I am going to miss his column very much and the RP is never going to be able to replace it !
I hope they re-run some of his writings to give us chance to read them again !
R.I.P.Well said. I’d love to see someone put out a new printed volume or two of his columns both within and outwith the
Post
.
Very sad news, and to an extent quite unexpected, given that he described himself as "horribly hale and hearty" in a
Post
interview just a couple of years ago and was still – I believe – an active point-to-point attendee in the Cambridgeshire area this winter.
Jeremy
(graysonscolumn)According to Jumping For Fun was recently seen on a dreich day at Cottenham and I once shared part of the Dingley car park (girlfriend at the time had a car) with him and he was exactly the same man as his media persona, lovely chap and parliament has been a dull and boring colourless place since he left it. I doubt if any of the current crop of MPs will be anywhere near as much loved or as respected. My dull wonder wont be that’s for sure.
Never been a fan of his, mainly because he was an owner with Michael Chapman, but read his column from time to time and it was relatively interesting and amusing. Any death is sad, so RIP Sir Clement!
Another of the good old boys you tend to have a soft spot for over the years gone – not sure there are any left.
First experience of him was on the Kennomeat ads – delivering lines like `I was going to make Fettucine but Henry stole the cheese’. Henry being the hound with similarly hangdog physog. Always enjoyable in print or on the radio.He often put up one of Venetia`s horses so missing out on Mon Mome may well have been a big blow.Clement Freud drew the short straw
on ITV news at Ten
barely a minute
(a teamgamble text informs me )
as r e a l i t y s Sarah Boyle
usurped him on airtime
and the prestigious end slot.She’s the future
He’s the past.This is
miserable
and endemic of how the the media
rate what cud the sheep want.As for Freud’s writing
it was pepperd with reality living
not in or on a box
but out there in the congested
black back streets
of Soho,
and the hot stoves of hotel ovens
where he enjoyed mixing with
the heat of commom people.He was one of the last fascinatingly
intense communicators
and his going further dissapears the past.
A jovial witty man with some attitude.
He will be much missed.
- Total Posts 17716
3 pages of eulogies, followed by one dissenting voice?
Can anyone be that desperate?
3 pages of eulogies, followed by one dissenting voice?
Can anyone be that desperate?I wouldn’t worry about it – Scallywag isn’t especially keen on Sir Clement (thread http://www.theracingforum.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=72045&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight=&sid=4b274a89c03ba7878b4ebd875a300c5f advises), whilst some of us are. So it goes.
I’m well aware that the old boy had the propensity to be a cantankerous git in the flesh; but by the same token I’m sure Kafka would probably have told the likes of me to go forth and multiply if we’d ever met (unlikely), yet he’s still my favourite literary author.
gc
Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
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