A Very Private Celebrity (43 page)

‘The best brigade major in the Eighth Army.'

– Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery

‘All the best young men are on the other side.'

– Winston Churchill
(former Prime Minister, in tears after Major Freeman's maiden speech opening the 1945 parliament on behalf of the Labour government)

‘He would have made a wonderful Prime Minister.'

– Dr Henry Kissinger

‘He is the most dangerous one of all of us, a man of Saturn.'

– Nye Bevan MP
(a Labour leader)

‘After years of studying his complex personality, I decided he was afraid of giving himself too fully to anything or anyone. I once told him his motto ought to be
Je me sauve
[I protect myself ].'

– Barbara Castle MP
(a former lover)

‘John has the capacity to put up the shutters that is excelled by nobody except a shopkeeper during riots.'

– Professor Norman MacKenzie
(writer and academic)

‘John is the only man who has ever made himself celebrated by turning his arse on the public.'

– Kingsley Martin
(editor of the
New Statesman
, referring to Freeman's back-to-camera interviewing on
Face to Face
)

‘It's astounding and sad – and not surprising in a fast-changing world – that our heroes are nobodies to our grandchildren. People of our generation revered John Freeman as one of the foundation stones of early television. If I learned one thing from him it was the art of doing an interview without proving what a clever chap you were. It's a piece of advice often ignored by the current generation of interviewers. I worked with him at ITV and without ever getting close to him – did anyone? – constantly admired his ability to inspire a mixture of admiration and awe from the staff. He was a great man and the present generation who know not of him don't know what they are missing.'

– Michael Parkinson

‘One of the three best ambassadors I ever served with.'

– Lord Renwick
(former ambassador to the USA)

‘He was very formidable – definitely not a man you would tell lies to. He would have made a gobsmacking QC.'

– Lord Grade
(former executive chairman of ITV)

‘A man of many epiphanies to remind us what England was once about.'

– Paul Johnson
(writing in
The Spectator
on Freeman's eightieth birthday)

‘John was well known but hard to know well; and that's exactly how he wanted it.'

– Catherine Freeman
(Freeman's third wife)