Sir Michael Parkinson obituary: A gentle Yorkshire accent and razor-sharp wit – the host that A-listers wanted to share their secrets with
A Barnsley-born lad, who through interviewing the world’s biggest stars, became a household name himself.
Sir Michael Parkinson’s illustrious career spanned five decades, during which he chatted to the likes of John Wayne, Fred Astaire, Orson Welles, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Muhammad Ali (four times), Bette Davis, Lauren Becall and Tommy Cooper.
More recent A-listers to grace his comfy chat show chairs included Tom Cruise, Madonna, and the Beckhams. His career saw him at the helm of more than 600 shows and 2,000 interviews.
‘Greatest interviewer of our time’ – reaction as Parky dies
Sir Michael and Muhammad Ali in 1979
Despite having talked to almost every celebrity worth their salt, he once described Frank Sinatra as “the one who got away” – having never got the chance to sit down with “Ol’ Blue Eyes”.
Known to many simply as “Parky”, his gentle Yorkshire accent, warm tone and razor-sharp mind combined to make him the host every celebrity wanted to share their secrets with – minus a few notable exceptions.
His 2003 interview with American actress Meg Ryan went down in history as one of the most awkward TV chat show moments of all time. When he asked the monosyllabic star what she would do in his place, she snapped: “Why not wrap it up?”
Ryan later compared the tone of his questions about her erotic thriller In The Cut – a departure from her more usual romcoms – to that of a “disapproving dad”.
Twenty years after the interview, Parkinson called it his “most difficult TV moment,” offering up an apology to the actress and admitting neither of them were on “top form”.
Actress Helen Mirren also famously called him out during his 1975 interview with her, when he asked the then 30-year-old star if her physical attributes had “hindered” her in her career. Parkinson later referred to it as just “good television”.
Another interviewee who gave as good as they got was Rod Hull’s Emu the following year, who wrestled Parkinson to the ground during their chat. Parkinson went on to jokingly bemoan the fact that despite a wealth of perfectly crafted interviews to his name, “I’ll probably be remembered for that bloody bird”. He was, in part, right.
Sir Michael Parkinson with Tom Cruise. Pic: ITV/Shutterstock
From a family of miners
Sir Michael was born on 28 March 1935, in Cudworth, near Barnsley, in what was then the West Riding of Yorkshire.
Far from being born into showbiz, his father and grandfather before him were miners, and a young Parkinson left school with dreams of becoming a professional cricketer.
He once opened the batting for his local club alongside legendary cricketing umpire Dickie Bird, and underwent trials with Geoffrey Boycott.
But when a cricketing career didn’t work out, Parkinson turned to journalism, writing first for local newspapers before moving to London to work for the Daily Express.
Completing his national service in 1955, he was made a captain (the youngest in the British Army at the time) and saw active service in Egypt during the Suez Crisis.
Sir Michael with his wife Mary
After learning his trade in Fleet Street, he swapped print journalism for TV in the 1960s, first appearing on BBC nightly current affairs show Twenty-Four Hours, before fronting Granada’s late night film review show Cinema.
His hard work paid off, and in 1971 he was offered his own chat show – Parkinson – which ran until 1982.
Early in the show’s first run, when chatting to his interviewee Orson Welles ahead of filming, the director screwed up his list of carefully prepared questions. It was a moment Parkinson later cited as teaching him his craft, making him fully appreciate the art of giving his subjects space to talk.
Sir David Frost (centre) dishes out the champagne to Sir Michael, joined by (from left) Robert Kee, Angela Rippon and Anna Ford
A spooky Halloween trick
Sir Michael followed up his late-night chat with morning shifts, becoming one of the original TV-AM line-up in 1983, alongside Angela Rippon, Anna Ford, David Frost and Robert Kee.
Other TV credits include Parkinson One To One – with each show giving an in-depth chat with one celebrity, Give Us A Clue, and Going For A Song.
On Halloween night of 1992, he hosted controversial pseudo-documentary Ghostwatch, alongside presenters Sarah Greene and Mike Smith. The show garnered much press attention, with the BBC receiving tens of thousands of complaints from viewers unsure if the programme was real.
A music lover (he once called listening to music his “greatest joy in life,” adding, “I don’t know how people exist without [it]”), he presented Desert Island Discs from 1986 to 1989. He also presented a Sunday morning show on Radio 2 between 1996 and 2007, credited with bringing jazz to a more mainstream audience.
His eponymous BBC chat show was successfully revived in 1998, defecting to ITV in 2004 (due to a difference in opinion over scheduling), where it ran until 2007.
Sir Michael received a standing ovation after his final episode, later commenting that the conclusion of his show marked the end of “polite conversation”, citing more recent hosts – including Jonathan Ross and Graham Norton – as being more about the comedy than the chat, and their shows more a vehicle for the interviewer than their subject.
He went on to form his own production company, Parkinson Productions, along with his eldest son Michael Parkinson Jr.
In 2012, a Sky Arts show – Parkinson: Masterclass – saw Parkinson able to speak in depth with musicians and artists about their craft, with the show running for two years.
Sir Michael with George Best
‘I don’t see the point of him’
Never afraid to voice his opinions on fellow celebrities or the TV industry as a whole, Parkinson’s bluntness sometimes caused offence. His comments in a Radio Times article that the late Jade Goody represented “all that’s paltry and wretched about Britain today” led to criticism from the bishop who had married her.
The One Show (which he said was an example of the decline in TV), female comedians (not as funny as men) and Russell Brand (unfunny and creatively dull) were also on the receiving end of Parkinson’s sharp tongue, with him declaring of the latter: “I don’t see the point of him.”
However, he wasn’t afraid of a bit of celebrity stardust himself, popping up in a few surprising cameos, including the Christmas romcom Love Actually and the much-loved Australian soap Neighbours, when he bumped into Karl and Susan during their trip to London.
He also made a baffling appearance on the front cover of the 1973 Wings album Band On The Run, along with several other well-known figures and of course the band themselves.
Sir Michael wrote various books over the course of his career, including memoirs on Ali and footballer George Best, several sporting books centred around his love of cricket and golf, his family story in Like Father, Like Son and his 2009 autobiography Parky.
Like any self-respecting celebrity, he also wrote a series of children’s books – The Woofits – about a family of cuddly hat-loving dogs set in the fictional Yorkshire coal-mining village of Grimeworth, leading to a TV series which he narrated.
Sir Michael received his Knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in 2008
‘I have the best job in the world’
Knighted for services to broadcasting in 2008, following his CBE in 2000, Parkinson joked he was “not the type to get a knighthood,” adding, “they give it to anyone nowadays”.
As well as interviewing celebrities in a professional capacity, he also counted many as close personal friends, including chef Michel Roux and comedian Billy Connolly.
Sir Michael with Billy Connolly in 2016
Known as an interviewer, Parkinson admitted he actually enjoyed it when the tables were turned and he himself was interviewed.
A man who reached the top of his game, he recognised his own good fortune, saying: “I have the best job in the world and once you have a show named after yourself, where else do you go?”
A life-long lover of cricket, Parkinson described playing the sport as “compulsory” for anyone born in Yorkshire. Adopting golf in later life, he was eventually forced to give up the sport due to back troubles.
In 2013, Parkinson revealed he was being treated for prostate cancer, and in 2017 he underwent a serious back operation.
He leaves behind his wife of 64 years Mary, three sons – Michael Jr, Andrew and Nicholas – and eight grandchildren.
A workman saved a seven-year-old boy from a burning car in the aftermath of a deadly crash caused by a suicidal ex-pilot, an inquest has heard.
The schoolboy’s rescue came following the collision on the M6, which killed former RAF man Richard Woods and four others, in October last year.
Last week a coroner ruled that Woods, 40, took his own life by deliberately driving his Skoda the wrong way down the motorway while drunk and hitting a Toyota Yaris head-on.
The driver of the Toyota, Jaroslaw Rossa, 42, was also killed, along with his two sons, Filip, 15, and Dominic, seven, and his partner Jade McEnroe, 33.
Cockermouth Coroner’s Court heard on Thursday that Ms McEnroe’s son was also in the car but survived after workman Gavin Walsh came to his rescue at the scene, which was near Tebay services in Cumbria.
In a statement to the inquest, Mr Walsh said he was a passenger in a transit van travelling to Scotland when he witnessed the crash.
He jumped out of the vehicle and used a jack to smash the rear windscreen of the Toyota and pulled the boy out of the burning vehicle.
Mr Walsh said: “We really did try, I can assure everyone we did our best. We only had minimal time.
“I saved a life that day and I hope never to witness anything like that again.”
He added that he has never stopped thinking about the boy, and said: “I hope we will meet again one day and I will give you a massive hug.”
At the time, the family were returning to Glasgow from a trip to Legoland in Windsor, Berkshire.
The inquest heard that Wood, who was travelling at a speed of at least 65mph, would have been charged with manslaughter had he survived.
Recording conclusions of unlawful killing, Cumbria assistant coroner Margaret Taylor said: “I found that Jaroslaw, Jade, Filip and Dominic died as a consequence of the unlawful acts of another driver.”
The inquest heard how Mr Woods, from Cambridgeshire, had served a distinguished 14-year career in the RAF and was a flight instructor for BAE Systems at the time of his death.
Jade McEnroe. Pic: Cumbria Constabulary
Dominic and Filip. Pic: Cumbria Constabulary
In Ms Taylor’s record of inquest, Mr Woods was said to have been experiencing “a number of stressors in his life” and had a “history of harmful use of alcohol”.
Following the crash, he was found to be nearly four times over the legal drink-drive limit and a two-thirds empty bottle of gin was found in his car.
On the day of his death, concerns had been raised over his behaviour at a work conference near Preston in Lancashire.
Mr Woods failed to return to his seat after lunch and was later spotted driving erratically and swerving across three northbound carriageway lanes on the M6.
After pulling onto the hard shoulder, he then proceeded to U-turn and drove southward on lane three.
Filip, Dominic and Jaroslaw Rossa. Pic: Cumbria Constabulary
Detective Sergeant Deborah Story, from Cumbria Police, told the inquest that Mr Woods would have been prosecuted on four counts of manslaughter had he lived.
She said hypothetical charges of murder were considered by detectives but not thought appropriate because of a lack of information that Mr Woods knew the family or anything that provided a link between them.
Ms McEnroe’s parents, Marie McEnroe and George McNellis, told the coroner they thought it was “murder”.
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A statement from the mother of Filip and Dominic, and the ex-wife of Mr Rossa, Kamila, was read out at the inquest.
She said Mr Rossa, known as Jarek, was born in Poland where they became a couple and went on to have three boys.
He loved playing computer games and had “lots of friends”, she said, and worked at the Wagamama restaurant in Silverburn, Glasgow.
She said she was “devastated” over the deaths, adding: “Our lives will never be the same.
“I am heartbroken at the passing of my beloved angels Filip and Dominic.”
Marie McEnroe said her daughter, a spa therapist, had been in a relationship with Mr Rossa for about two-and-a-half years.
She said Jade had been a “brilliant mother” to her only child, was “really happy” with Mr Rossa and it was “lovely chaos” when all the boys were playing together.
Ms McEnroe added: “Life changed forever that day”.
Ms Taylor praised the “selfless acts of bravery” from those in the aftermath of the collision, including Mr Walsh, who she said went towards the burning car “without hesitation for his own safety”.
The coroner added: “Without his swift response, Jade’s child would also have perished.”
Addressing the bereaved family members, she said: “Your loss is unimaginable but you have conducted yourself with dignity and I thank you for that. I wish you strength for the future.”
Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.
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