One of the most controversial MPs of the twentieth century, by 1968 Powell had been sacked from his position as Shadow Defence Secretary due to his inflammatory and divisive "Rivers of Blood" speech. A poet, author, classical scholar and soldier (he achieved the rank of Brigadier in World War II) Powell's radical oratory on immigration polarised a generation and remains contentious to this day. Scheduled only to run for the standard 39 minutes, Frost's interview with Powell was so powerful that a decision was made during it's live transmission to extend it by a further twenty minutes, after the News at Ten. Sixty minutes of continuous cut-and-thrust debate highlight this programme as one of the benchmark interviews of David Frost's career.