Sir Michael Parkinson’s son says he wouldn’t have been a TV star without his wife Mary’s ‘moral compass’
Sir Michael Parkinson’s son says the chat show king – who interviewed stars including John Lennon, Muhammad Ali and Madonna – would never have achieved such onscreen success without the love and support of his wife, Mary.
Mike Parkinson told Sky News: “She inspired him. She gave him confidence. She was his mentor.
“But also, she was his morality. She was his moral core.
“She told him when he was making the wrong decisions. She told him and he made the right decisions.”
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A look back at some of Parkinson’s most memorable interviews
Known for his interviews with the world’s biggest celebrities, Parkinson died last week aged 88, following a brief illness.
A journalist and presenter in her own right, Mary Parkinson presented the 1970s magazine programme Good Afternoon and went on to appear regularly as a panellist on Through The Keyhole.
Now 87, she married Parkinson in 1959 and they went on to have three sons together.
Speaking to Wilfred Frost on Sky News Today, Mike Parkinson joked: “She nearly had to divorce him when he refused to go and have dinner with Clint Eastwood.
“He turned down the opportunity and my mother didn’t speak to him for about two weeks.”
Following Parkinson’s death, tributes poured in from around the world from fans and high-profile figures, many of whom had been interviewed by the chat show host.
Mike explained the “strange experience” of losing your father when he’s a well-known public figure, saying: “We knew him as a father and a husband of 64 years.
“And as much as we adored what people said about him and felt immensely proud about it, it does have a strange effect upon you as a private person because it pushes your grief to the side.
“You don’t almost feel as if you can properly grieve because you want to allow the public, that knew him in a different way, to grieve [first].”
Parkinson and Joan Collins in 2001
He said his father would have been “shocked” by all the tributes, adding, “he had absolutely no sense of the legacy that people talk about or the iconic status”.
Detailing the challenges of growing up with a famous dad, he said: “It’s a weird experience… You have this man at home, but he’s also public property and you have to share him with the world.”
He said while the family would enjoy Sunday lunches together, his father’s work would often encroach.
“We were also acutely aware that when he was doing a show, it was very much the house was quite tense,” he said.
“He was very nervous beforehand. And we had to sort of take a backseat and let him get on with what he wanted to do. He was quite traditional that way.”
Parkinson and Muhammad Ali in 1974. Pic: BBC
With perks like getting to meet Kermit The Frog, Mike said growing up in a time before mobile phones and social media helped keep his childhood “normal”.
He explained: “Because the cult of celebrity hadn’t existed then, I wasn’t really aware, my friends weren’t interested in what my dad did for a living, their parents kind of were a bit more interested, but no one really noticed it because there wasn’t a mobile phone, there wasn’t the Internet.
“So, therefore I had a very normal childhood, but I had this weird existence where I could go and meet these extraordinary people.”
Parkinson and Tom Cruise. Pic: ITV/Shutterstock
Looking back at his father’s humble beginnings growing up in a council house in Cudworth, near Barnsley, he says despite his success, Parkinson “had no confidence in himself”.
With a working-class background, he said Parkinson “constantly felt that he was going to get a tap on the shoulder to say, ‘You don’t belong here,’ because he was amongst people who he thought were his superiors…
“He always felt, to a certain extent, that he had to prove himself, and that made him very insecure. That made him drive himself forward all the time and question himself.”
Parkinson receiving his CBE at Buckingham Palace in 2000
Frequently critical of the decline of TV and the celebrity in his latter years, Mike says Parkinson was foremost a journalist and not a TV star: “He was never interested in fame for fame’s sake… He approached every single person, no matter how famous, with a journalistic eye.
“He wasn’t a comedian. He didn’t have a patter. He didn’t have any kind of sketch to throw to.
“In the end, he was a facilitator, he interviewed, but you had to be able to deliver. And that’s what he was about.”
Unable to write in his final years, Mike says it was that loss that caused his father the most sadness, concluding: “In the end, if you ask him now up there when he went to the pearly gates and they asked him what he did for a living, he would have said journalist because that’s what gave him the most pleasure.”
Entertainment
Paul Gallagher, older brother of Oasis stars Noel and Liam, is charged with offences including rape
Gregg Wallace has spoken about his sacking from MasterChef after inappropriate behaviour while working for the BBC – but insisted he is “not a groper, a sex pest or a flasher”.
Wallace, 60, has apologised after a report, commissioned by the cooking show’s production company Banijay UK, found 45 out of 83 allegations were substantiated.
In an interview with The Sun, he said: “I know I have said things that offended people… I understand that now – and to anyone I have hurt, I am so sorry.
“I don’t expect anyone to have any sympathy with me but I don’t think I am a wrong ‘un.”
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BBC reputation damaged by ‘serious errors’
MasterChef co-host John Torode also had an allegation that he used an “extremely offensive racist term” upheld, as part of the same investigation.
Torode, who insisted he had “absolutely no recollection” of the alleged incident, has not had his contract for the show renewed.
Wallace has now defended Torode, saying: “I’ve known John for 30 years and he is not a racist.
“There is no way that man is a racist. No way. And my sympathies go out to John because I don’t want anybody to go through what I’ve been through.”
Gregg Wallace has defended his former MasterChef co-host John Torode (left). File pic: PA
At one point, Wallace became tearful during the interview when describing the impact of the investigation on his family.
“I have seen myself written about in the same sentence as Jimmy Savile and Huw Edwards, paedophiles and sex offenders. That is just so, so horrific.”
In respect to the specific allegation of unwanted touching, Wallace denied groping a woman and said that, while he was attempting to flirt with her, he did believe the contact it was consensual.
“She gave me her phone number. I considered that to be intimacy. It was 15 years ago. Me, drunk, at a party, with my hand on a girl’s bum,” he said.
He also accepted he had briefly appeared with a sock on his private parts in front of four colleagues in MasterChef studio. But he said his is not a flasher, and people were either “amused or bemused” but not distressed.
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On the broader allegations about using inappropriate language, Wallace accepted the criticism and suggested that some of his conduct could be explained by his autism and his background.
“I know I am odd. I know I struggle to read people. I know people find me weird. Autism is a… registered disability. Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it’s not real.”
He also blamed his former career: “I’m a greengrocer from Peckham. I thrived in Covent Garden’s fruit and veg market. In that environment that is jovial and crude. It is learned behaviour.”
Wallace told the newspaper he is now scared to appear in public: “I go out now in a disguise – a baseball cap and sunglasses, I don’t want people to see me. I’m scared.”
On Wednesday, the BBC confirmed a series of MasterChef filmed last year, before allegations against presenters Gregg Wallace and John Torode were upheld, will still be broadcast.
Entertainment
Company at heart of Coldplay viral video releases tongue-in-cheek clip – with a big twist
The company at the centre of a viral video at a Coldplay concert has released a tongue-in-cheek clip on social media – featuring Gwyneth Paltrow as a “temporary spokesperson”.
Astronomer was thrust into the spotlight after two of the tech firm’s senior executives were filmed embracing on a kiss cam during a gig in Boston.
Andy Byron subsequently resigned as chief executive officer – while the woman in the video, Kristin Cabot, stepped down as chief people officer a few days later.
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Tech boss resigns after viral Coldplay concert video
Paltrow, who used to be married to Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, is seen sitting at a desk in the new video uploaded to X – and begins by thanking the public for their interest in Astronomer.
She adds: “I’ve been hired on a very temporary basis to speak on behalf of the 300-plus employees at Astronomer.
“Astronomer has gotten a lot of questions over the last few days – and they wanted me to answer the most common ones.”
A question is then typed out on the screen that reads: “OMG, what the actual…”
Before the final word appears, the video cuts back to Paltrow, who goes on to promote some of the services Astronomer offers.
In a subtle nod to the countless column inches the company has attracted, Paltrow adds: “We’ve been thrilled so many people have a newfound interest in data workflow automation.”
Another question then pops up on screen, which begins to type out: “How is your social media team holding up?”
But before the sentence fully appears, Paltrow abruptly interrupts by declaring that Astronomer has spaces at an upcoming conference in September.
“We’ll now be returning to what we do best: delivering game-changing results for our customers,” she adds at the end of the video.
The marketing stunt is a sign that Astronomer is trying to put a positive spin on the scandal, which sparked feverish speculation online.
After Mr Byron resigned, the company had said in a statement: “Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding.
“Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met.”
Pete DeJoy, who has taken over as interim CEO, admitted on Monday that the company has faced an “unusual and surreal” amount of attention in recent days.
On LinkedIn, he wrote: “While I would never have wished for it to happen like this, Astronomer is now a household name.”
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