Sir Michael Parkinson’s five most memorable interviews

Published

2 years ago

August 17, 2023

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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.

‘Greatest interviewer of our time’; follow tribute updates

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.

Dame Helen Mirren (1975)

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”.

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”.

“I was my most pompous self,” he said, adding that it revealed “an unattractive side” of himself.

Rod Hull and Emu (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)

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.

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.”

David and Victoria Beckham (2001)

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.

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)

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”.

UK

Diogo Jota: Liverpool players join mourners as Premier League star and his brother Andre Silva buried in Portugal

Published

6 hours ago

July 5, 2025

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Diogo Jota: Liverpool players join mourners as Premier League star and his brother Andre Silva buried in Portugal

Liverpool players past and present have joined the family and friends of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva for their funeral in Portugal.

A service was held in the Igreja Matriz de Gondomar church in their hometown of Gondomar near Porto in northern Portugal on Saturday morning.

Mourners lined the streets and some in the crowd clapped as the brothers’ coffins were carried into the church.

The funeral – in pictures

Jota, 28, leaves behind his wife of only 11 days, Rute Cardoso, and three young children.

His younger brother, 25, was an attacking midfielder for Penafiel in the second tier of Portuguese football.

Liverpool manager Arne Slot, captain Virgil Van Dijk and teammates including Andy Robertson, Conor Bradley, Ryan Gravenberch, Cody Gakpo, Curtis Jones, Darwin Nunez and Joe Gomez were seen at the service.

Former teammates Jordan Henderson, James Milner and Fabinho were also there.

Van Dijk carried a red wreath with Jota’s number 20, while Robertson had a wreath featuring number 30, Silva’s number at Penafiel.

Some of Jota’s teammates in the Portuguese national side also attended, including Bruno Fernandes, of Manchester United, Ruben Dias and Bernardo Silva, of Manchester City, Joao Felix and Renato Veiga, of Chelsea, Nelson Semedo, from Wolves, Joao Moutinho and Rui Patricio.

Ruben Neves was one of the pallbearers after flying in from Florida where he played for Al Hilal in the Club World Cup quarter-final on Friday night.

‘More than a friend’

In a post published on Instagram before the service, he told Jota he had been “more than a friend, we’re family, and we won’t stop being that way just because you’ve decided to sign a contract a little further away from us!”

Jota’s fellow Liverpool midfielder, Alexis Mac Allister, said on Instagram: “I can’t believe it. I’ll always remember your smiles, your anger, your intelligence, your camaraderie, and everything that made you a person. It hurts so much; we’ll miss you. Rest in peace, dear Diogo.”

Porto FC president Andre Villas-Boas and Portugal national team manager Roberto Martinez were also in attendance.

‘With us forever’

Speaking after the ceremony, Martinez said the period since their deaths had been “really, really sad days, as you can imagine, but today we showed we are a large, close family.

“Their spirit will be with us forever.”

The service was private, but the words spoken by the Bishop of Porto, Manuel Linda, were broadcast to those standing outside the church.

He told Jota’s children, who were not at the service, that he was praying for them specifically, as well as their mother and grandparents.

“There are no words, but there are feelings,” he said, adding: “We also suffer a lot and we are with you emotionally.”

The brothers died after a Lamborghini they were travelling in burst into flames following a suspected tyre blowout in the early hours of Thursday morning.

No other vehicles are said to have been involved in the incident.

Liverpool have delayed the return of their players for pre-season following Jota’s death and players past and present paid tribute to him and his brother on social media.

Flowers have been left outside Anfield, where flags have been lowered to half-mast and all club shops, museums and tours have been closed until Monday.

UK

Rachel Reeves hints at tax rises in autumn budget after welfare bill U-turn

Published

9 hours ago

July 5, 2025

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Rachel Reeves hints at tax rises in autumn budget after welfare bill U-turn

Rachel Reeves has hinted that taxes are likely to be raised this autumn after a major U-turn on the government’s controversial welfare bill.

Sir Keir Starmer’s Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill passed through the House of Commons on Tuesday after multiple concessions and threats of a major rebellion.

MPs ended up voting for only one part of the plan: a cut to universal credit (UC) sickness benefits for new claimants from £97 a week to £50 from 2026/7.

Initially aimed at saving £5.5bn, it now leaves the government with an estimated £5.5bn black hole – close to breaching Ms Reeves’s fiscal rules set out last year.

In an interview with The Guardian, the chancellor did not rule out tax rises later in the year, saying there were “costs” to watering down the welfare bill.

“I’m not going to [rule out tax rises], because it would be irresponsible for a chancellor to do that,” Ms Reeves told the outlet.

“We took the decisions last year to draw a line under unfunded commitments and economic mismanagement.

“So we’ll never have to do something like that again. But there are costs to what happened.”

Meanwhile, The Times reported that, ahead of the Commons vote on the welfare bill, Ms Reeves told cabinet ministers the decision to offer concessions would mean taxes would have to be raised.

The outlet reported that the chancellor said the tax rises would be smaller than those announced in the 2024 budget, but that she is expected to have to raise tens of billions more.

It comes after Ms Reeves said she was “totally” up to continuing as chancellor after appearing tearful at Prime Minister’s Questions.

Criticising Sir Keir for the U-turns on benefit reform during PMQs, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the chancellor looked “absolutely miserable”, and questioned whether she would remain in post until the next election.

Sir Keir did not explicitly say that she would, and Ms Badenoch interjected to say: “How awful for the chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she would stay in place.”

In her first comments after the incident, Ms Reeves said she was having a “tough day” before adding: “People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday.

“Today’s a new day and I’m just cracking on with the job.”

Sir Keir also told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby on Thursday that he “didn’t appreciate” that Ms Reeves was crying in the Commons.

“In PMQs, it is bang, bang, bang,” he said. “That’s what it was yesterday.

“And therefore, I was probably the last to appreciate anything else going on in the chamber, and that’s just a straightforward human explanation, common sense explanation.”

UK

Diogo Jota and Andre Silva’s funeral in pictures

Published

11 hours ago

July 5, 2025

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Diogo Jota and Andre Silva's funeral in pictures

The family and friends of Diogo Jota and his brother Andre Silva have been joined by Liverpool stars past and present and other Portuguese players at the pair’s funeral near Porto.

The Liverpool forward, 28, and his brother died in a car crash in Spain on Thursday.

Pictures below show the funeral at the Igreja Matriz de Gondomar church in the town of Gondomar near Porto. Click here for our liveblog coverage of the day’s events.