Sir Clement Freud

[Trav Le Bleu]

RIP

Sir Clement Freud, the writer, broadcaster and former Liberal MP, has died, his family announced today.

He died at his desk yesterday at his home in London, nine days short of his 85th birthday.

Freud had a famously varied career which included stints as a politician, chef, restaurateur, food writer, horse racing pundit, children's writer, and dog food advertiser, but he was perhaps best known as a panellist on Radio 4's Just a Minute. His lugubrious performances had delighted audiences since the show was first broadcast in 1967.

He was a grandson of the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, brother of the artist Lucian Freud, and father to five children including the PR executive Matthew Freud and the broadcaster Emma Freud.

Freud was elected as the Liberal MP for the Isle of Ely, later North East Cambridgeshire, from 1973 to 1987. He was knighted in the year he left parliament.

In 1978 he was in China with the more junior MP, Winston Churchill, the grandson of the former prime minister. When Churchill was given the best room in a hotel because of his family, Freud said it was the first time in his life that he had been "out-grandfathered".

Freud was born in Berlin and his family moved to the UK in the 1930s. He worked as an apprentice cook at the Dorchester hotel in London and later ran a restaurant in fashionable Sloane Square. During the second world war he served with Royal Ulster Rifles.

Freud first became a household name in Minced Morsels dog food adverts first broadcast in the late 1960s.

He was also a celebrated food, racing and political journalist, who worked for a number of titles including the Observer, the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Express.

Last year he spoke about his death, claiming his relatives would want to inherit his wine.

He wrote in the Times: "I lost Sigmund's nightshirts and the heavy leather luggage, but have quite a lot of wine, the odd painting, a letter from Margaret Thatcher and a picture of me with Muhammad Ali.

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

"When it came to money, all are hugely well heeled and what I leave, especially a fifth share of what I leave, is likely to be an embarrassment: what they tip the milkman at Christmas."

Writing on Twitter, the actor and broadcaster, Stephen Fry said he would miss "dear old Clement Freud … dreadfully."

Speaking on the BBC's Today programme he said Freud was 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."

Comedian Tony Hawks, who frequently appeared alongside Freud on Just a Minute 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.

Freud is survived by his wife, the actor Jill Freud. His funeral will be held next week.

A very funny man with a great dry wit. The saddest thing is that this will get an iota of the attention Jade Goody's death got.

[Matt]

RIP

[Corky]

Very sad news.

I saw him a few times on Have I Got News For You and thought he was brilliant. Very dry, deadpan humour.

RIP.

[Head Honcho]

Yes very sad indeed a true icon of my childhood-well him and Henry anyway.

Saw him at Leicester races on a couple of occasions and at Cheltenham once.

He had a horse called weareagrandmother which was a bit of a piss take on something Maggie Thatcher once said.

[James.]

He had a horse called weareagrandmother which was a bit of a piss take on something Maggie Thatcher once said.

Was interested by that so I found out:

'We have become a grandmother' was UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's statement to the press in 1989, on the birth of her first grandchild, Mark Thatcher's son Michael.

Famous due to the use of the royal "we" by non-royalty apparently.

[DB11]

RIP

[Daggers]

He'll be hesitating now...

Lovely bloke, huge wit and great intelligence. I held him in very high regard and his contributions on Just A Minute were godlike.

[Head Honcho]

Was interested by that so I found out:

Famous due to the use of the royal "we" by non-royalty apparently.

Yeh although he was a bit of a socialist he couldn't bring himself to join the LP of the 70's so opted for the Liberals instead.

[Ultra]

Found this on a tribute post..

RIP. He'll be much missed.

[Webbo]

I can just about remember his dog food adverts with his dog Henry. Very funny man.

[Orkneyfox]

I heard him give the main after dinner speach at a Liberal party do in Orkney, extremely funny, very dry, his pace of delivery was very slow of course compared to most of todays comic luminaries but his timing was immaculate. I had a great night out apart from the effects of an excess of red wine.