Sir Michael Parkinson’s interviews are among the most memorable in British broadcasting.
Interviewing high-profile celebrities from both sides of the Atlantic, he sat down with the likes of Madonna, Sir Elton John and Tom Cruise – as well as Sir Tony Blair and Boris Johnson.
But out of more than 800 episodes of his chat show, he will be remembered for just a select few – and not all of them for the right reasons.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:50
A look back at Sir Michael Parkinson’s career
Dame Helen Mirren (1975)
Image: Helen Mirren in a play in London in 1979
Parkinson was often accused of being sexist during an interview in the 1970s with actress Dame Helen Mirren.
Perhaps reflective of attitudes at the time, he chose to focus on her portrayal as a “sex queen”, quizzing her on whether her “physical attributes… hindered her career” or “detracted from her performance”.
More on Michael Parkinson
Related Topics:
The then 30-year-old appeared uncomfortable and grilled him on what he meant, accusing him of claiming “serious actresses can’t have big bosoms”.
Reflecting on the exchange years later, he “pleads guilty to being sexist by today’s standards”.
Advertisement
“I was my most pompous self,” he said, adding that it revealed “an unattractive side” of himself.
Rod Hull and Emu (1976)
Image: Rod Hull and Emu in London in 1976
One of Parky’s most famous encounters was with entertainer Rod Hull and his famous puppet Emu.
In later years he joked that there were far better exchanges he’d rather be known for.
“I’ll probably be remembered for that bloody bird,” he said.
Over the course of several minutes, the pretend bird relentlessly attacked him, damaging the on-set furniture and eventually wrestling him off his chair to the floor.
He managed to keep his composure and good humour throughout, before eventually kicking him away and getting to his feet.
Muhammad Ali (1971-81)
Image: Ali and Parkinson in 1974. Pic: BBC
Parkinson interviewed the legendary boxer on four occasions between 1971 and 1981, flying once to the US in 1974 to co-interview him with American talk show host Dick Cavett.
Looking back, he compared their encounters to boxing matches, claiming he “lost on every occasion”.
“He was confrontational, he was dictatorial, all those things… and he had that physical presence,” he recalled in 2016.
Their first tete-a-tete saw the athlete talk movingly about his upbringing, racism and conversion to Islam.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
1:28
Parkinson interviews Muhammad Ali
But as the years went on their conversations got spikier.
Their 1974 chat saw Ali declare: “You and this little TV show are nothing to Muhammad Ali.”
Then in 1981, he challenged Parkinson again, saying: “I’m not just a boxer. I can talk all week on millions of subjects. You do not have enough wisdom to corner me on television. You are too small mentally to tackle me on nothing I represent.”
Although he said Ali would present a different version of himself each time, he said he revelled in each chance to sit opposite him.
“What a figure, what a personality,” Parkinson said.
“I’ve seen some beautiful men in my time but he was gorgeous. Beautiful – but the gibberish he talked was extraordinary.”
Parkinson credited his later interviews with being his best, having gained confidence and learned from earlier mistakes.
In 2001 he sat down with David and Victoria Beckham to ask them about their relationship, public image and accusations of affairs.
Image: The Beckhams in Manchester in August 2000
Quizzing former Spice Girl Victoria on how the public’s perception of her had changed – she suggested her husband’s image had overtaken hers.
“I think they think I’m a miserable cow in high heels and I just go down Bond Street all the time,” she told him.
“You can get down and think ‘why don’t people understand me, why are they saying this and that’.
“But what better person than my own husband to see how you can turn all of that around.”
After a short pause, she made the revelation that she “calls him Goldenballs now”, to fits of laughter from the audience, before adding: “That’s one of those things I shouldn’t have said.”
Meg Ryan (2003)
Image: Ryan and Parkinson in 2003. Pic: BBC
A few years after the re-launch of his BBC show in 1998, Parkinson interviewed Hollywood actress Meg Ryan.
The frosty exchange saw Parkinson grill the When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle star on why she wanted to be an actress if she didn’t enjoy being in the spotlight.
He accused her of being “wary” of journalists like him and asked what she would do if she was in his position.
Clearly exasperated, Ryan advised she would tell him to “wrap it up”.
She later accused him of behaving like a “disappointed dad” when discussing nudity in her films.
In a Radio Times interview, Parkinson admitted he wished he’d “dealt with it in a more courteous manner”.
“I was quite obviously angry with her and it’s not my business to be angry towards guests,” he told the magazine in 2021.
He said he would apologise if he saw her again – a change in tune from previously labelling her a “bore” and “unhappy woman”.
Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi has been charged with three counts of attempted murder.
It comes after four prison officers were injured in an attack at the maximum security prison HMP Frankland in Co Durham on 12 April.
Abedi has also been charged with one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and one count of unauthorised possession of a knife or offensive weapon.
Counter Terrorism Policing North East has said it carried out a “thorough investigation” of the incident with Durham Constabulary and HMP Frankland.
He remains in prison and is due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 18 September.
Three prison officers were taken to hospital with serious injuries following the incident.
Marnie’s first serious relationship came when she was 16-years-old.
Warning: This article contains references to strangulation, coercive control and domestic abuse.
She was naturally excited when a former friend became her first boyfriend.
But after a whirlwind few months, everything changed with a slow, determined peeling away of her personality.
“There was isolation, then it was the phone checking,” says Marnie.
As a survivor of abuse, we are not using her real name.
“When I would go out with my friends or do something, I’d get constant phone calls and messages,” she says.
“I wouldn’t be left alone to sort of enjoy my time with my friends. Sometimes he might turn up there, because I just wasn’t trusted to just go and even do something minor like get my nails done.”
Image: The internet is said to be helping to fuel a rise in domestic abuse among teens. Pic: iStock
He eventually stopped her from seeing friends, shouted at her unnecessarily, and accused her of looking at other men when they would go out.
If she ever had any alone time, he would bombard her with calls and texts; she wasn’t allowed to do anything without him knowing where she was.
He monitored her phone constantly.
“Sometimes I didn’t even know someone had messaged me.
“My mum maybe messaged to ask me where I was. He would delete the message and put my phone away, so then I wouldn’t even have a clue my mum had tried to reach me.”
The toll of what Marnie experienced was only realised 10 years later when she sought help for frequent panic attacks.
She struggled to comprehend the damage her abuser had inflicted when she was diagnosed with PTSD.
This is what psychological abuse and coercive control looks like.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
2:56
‘His hands were on my throat – he didn’t stop’
Young women and girls in the UK are increasingly falling victim, with incidents of domestic abuse spiralling among under-25s.
Exclusive data shared with Sky News, gathered by domestic abuse charity Refuge, reveals a disturbing rise in incidents between April 2024 and March 2025.
Psychological abuse was the most commonly reported form of harm, affecting 73% of young women and girls.
Of those experiencing this form of manipulation, 49% said their perpetrator had threatened to harm them and a further 35% said their abuser had threatened to kill them.
Among the 62% of 16-25 year olds surveyed who had reported suffering from physical violence, half of them said they had been strangled or suffocated.
Earlier this year, Sky News reported that school children were asking for advice on strangulation, but Kate Lexen, director of services at charity Tender, says children as young as nine are asking about violent pornography and displaying misogynistic behaviour.
Image: Kate Lexen, director of services at charity Tender
“What we’re doing is preventing what those misogynistic behaviours can then escalate onto,” Ms Lexen says.
Tender has been running workshops and lessons on healthy relationships in primary and secondary schools and colleges for over 20 years.
Children as young as nine ‘talking about strangulation’
Speaking to Sky News, Ms Lexen says new topics are being brought up in sessions, which practitioners and teachers are adapting to.
“We’re finding those Year 5 and Year 6 students, so ages 9, 10 and 11, are talking about strangulation, they’re talking about attitudes that they’ve read online and starting to bring in some of those attitudes from some of those misogynistic influencers.
“There are ways that they’re talking about and to their female teachers.
“We’re finding that from talking to teachers as well that they are really struggling to work out how to broach these topics with the students that they are working with and how to make that a really safe space and open space to have those conversations in an age-appropriate way, which can be very challenging.”
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
4:58
Hidden domestic abuse deaths
Charities like Tender exist to prevent domestic abuse and sexual violence.
Ms Lexen says without tackling misogynistic behaviours “early on with effective prevention education” then the repercussions, as the data for under 25s proves, will be “astronomical”.
At Refuge, it is already evident. Elaha Walizadeh, senior programme manager for children and young people, says the charity has seen a rise in referrals since last year.
Image: Elaha Walizadeh, senior programme manager for children and young people at Refuge
“We have also seen the dynamics of abuse changing,” she adds. “So with psychological abuse being reported, we’ve seen a rise in that and non-fatal strangulation cases, we’ve seen a rise in as well.
“Our frontline workers are telling us that the young people are telling them usually abuse starts from smaller signs. So things like coercive control, where the perpetrators are stopping them from seeing friends and family. It then builds.”
Misogyny to violent behaviour might seem like a leap.
But experts and survivors are testament to the fact that it is happening.