Sir Michael Parkinson’s son says he wouldn’t have been a TV star without his wife Mary’s ‘moral compass’

Published

2 years ago

August 25, 2023

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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.”

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].”

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.”

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.”

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.”

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

Bob Vylan dropped by talent agency – as BBC expresses ‘regret’ over streaming of Glastonbury performance

Published

6 mins ago

June 30, 2025

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Bob Vylan dropped by talent agency - as BBC expresses 'regret' over streaming of Glastonbury performance

The BBC has said it regrets not pulling the live stream of Bob Vylan’s “unacceptable” Glastonbury set – as Ofcom said the broadcaster had “questions to answer”.

The corporation has faced mounting criticism over airing the performance on Glastonbury‘s West Holts Stage, during which the rap-punk duo’s frontman Bobby Vylan led chants of, “free, free Palestine”, and “death, death to the IDF [Israel Defence Forces]”.

Sir Keir Starmer condemned the remarks as “appalling hate speech”, while festival organiser Emily Eavis said they “crossed a line” – and media watchdog Ofcom has now also released a statement raising concerns.

On Monday morning, a spokesperson for the prime minister did not directly answer when asked if he still had confidence in BBC director-general Tim Davie.

Sky News understands the band have since been dropped by representatives United Talent Agency.

During Bob Vylan’s set on Saturday, they performed in front of a screen that showed several messages, including one that said Israel’s actions in Gaza amount to “genocide”.

Footage from the performance shows some of the crowd joining in with the chants.

Amid criticism afterwards, the BBC said there had been a warning on screen about potential “strong and discriminatory language”, but described the comments as “deeply offensive”.

On Monday, a spokesperson released an updated statement, saying the comments were antisemitic and the performance should have been taken off air.

“The BBC respects freedom of expression but stands firmly against incitement to violence,” the statement said. “The antisemitic sentiments expressed by Bob Vylan were utterly unacceptable and have no place on our airwaves. We welcome Glastonbury’s condemnation of the performance.”

A judgement to issue a warning on screen while streaming online was in line with editorial guidelines, the spokesperson added, and the performance has not been made available to view on demand.

“The team were dealing with a live situation but with hindsight we should have pulled the stream during the performance. We regret this did not happen.

“In light of this weekend, we will look at our guidance around live events so we can be sure teams are clear on when it is acceptable to keep output on air.”

Ofcom’s reaction

An Ofcom spokesperson said: “We are very concerned about the live stream of this performance, and the BBC clearly has questions to answer.

“We have been speaking to the BBC over the weekend and we are obtaining further information as a matter of urgency, including what procedures were in place to ensure compliance with its own editorial guidelines.”

In a statement shared on Instagram on Sunday, Bobby Vylan said: “Teaching our children to speak up for the change they want and need is the only way that we make this world a better place.

“As we grow older and our fire starts to possibly dim under the suffocation of adult life and all its responsibilities, it is incredibly important that we encourage and inspire future generations to pick up the torch that was passed to us.”

The latest developments follows severe condemnation from the prime minister, who said there was “no excuse for this kind of appalling hate speech”.

Sir Keir also referenced a previous statement that Belfast rap group Kneecap, who were on stage after Bob Vylan, should have been removed from the line-up after one member was charged with a terrorism offence.

“I said that Kneecap should not be given a platform and that goes for any other performers making threats or inciting violence,” he said.

Ms Eavis, whose father Michael co-founded the festival, said in a statement that Bob Vylan had “very much crossed a line”.

She added: “Their chants very much crossed a line and we are urgently reminding everyone involved in the production of the festival that there is no place at Glastonbury for antisemitism, hate speech or incitement to violence.”

The Israeli embassy posted on X in the hours after the set, saying it was “deeply disturbed by the inflammatory and hateful rhetoric”.

It said the slogan used “advocates for the dismantling of the State of Israel”.

In a separate post on X on Sunday, Israel’s foreign ministry published graphic footage following the attack by Hamas on the Nova festival in Israel on 7 October 2023, and the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) said it would be formally complaining to the BBC over its “outrageous decision” to broadcast the performance.

Speaking to Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips on behalf of the government, Health Secretary Wes Streeting described the chant as “appalling”, especially at a music festival – “when there were Israelis at a similar music festival who were kidnapped, murdered, raped, and in some cases still held captive”.

He added that while “there’s no justification for inciting violence against Israelis… the way in which Israel’s conducting this war has made it extremely difficult for Israel’s allies around the world to stand by and justify”.

Lucy McMullin, who was in the crowd for Bob Vylan, told Sky News: “When there’s children and civilians being murdered and starved, then I think it’s important that people are speaking out on these issues.

“However, inciting more death and violence is not the way to do it.”

Police have said they are reviewing footage of both the Bob Vylan and Kneecap sets to assess whether any criminal offences were committed.

Speaking to Sky News, women and equalities minister Baroness Jacqui Smith said the comments “clearly” over-stepped the mark.

“I’m surprised that the BBC carried on broadcasting them live when it was obvious what was happening.”

Entertainment

RuPaul’s Drag Race star The Vivienne died by ‘misadventure’, inquest finds

Published

6 mins ago

June 30, 2025

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RuPaul's Drag Race star The Vivienne died by 'misadventure', inquest finds

An inquest has found drag queen The Vivienne did not intend to take their life when they died after taking ketamine.

Coroner Jacqueline Devonish concluded The Vivienne, whose real name is James Lee Williams, died by “misadventure” after suffering cardio respiratory arrest.

Williams, who won the first series of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK in 2019, was found dead at the age of 32 in the bath at their home in Cheshire on 5 January this year.

In March, the star’s family revealed the performer had died “from the effects of ketamine use causing a cardiac arrest”, saying they wanted to raise awareness about the dangers of the drug.

Cheshire Coroner’s Court heard five drug snap bags were found, including in a bedroom draw and a bin in the bathroom, in their home in Chorlton-by-Backford, near Chester.

Police attended and confirmed there were no suspicious circumstances.

The inquest heard friends and family had no worries about Williams’s mental health and the performer was looking forward to future roles on TV and in the theatre, although did “occasionally” take ketamine.

The star’s family told the hearing the performer should not be remembered for their use of the Class B drug and that drugs did not define the person they were.

Williams’s father Lee Williams described them as “an outgoing character who was full of life” and “just wanted to make people laugh”.

“He achieved his goals. He had future goals he wanted to achieve. Along the way he always wanted to try to help his community, which he did and try to help other drag queens,” he said.

“He was always available. He never turned anybody down. He never turned his back on anybody. He never said no.

“He loved the stage, that’s where he saw the rest of his career being, on the stage, in the theatre. That’s what he loved to do.”

Williams’s funeral in Bodelwyddan, Denbighshire, North Wales, was attended by RuPaul’s Drag Race UK contestants Tia Kofi and Baga Chipz, along with Steps singer Ian “H” Watkins, TV personality Kim Woodburn and Coronation Street actress Claire Sweeney.

During their time on the show, under their drag name, Williams admitted having been a drug addict for four years.

“It was party, drugs, but I couldn’t leave the drugs at the party, it was constant for me,” they said.

They added that their addiction was a “habit that caught on a bit too quick and a bit too hard”.

The TV personality, who grew up in Colwyn Bay, North Wales, before moving to Liverpool, came third in the 2023 edition of Dancing On Ice.

The star performed as the Wicked Witch of the West in a UK and Ireland tour of The Wizard Of Oz musical and reprised the role in the West End at the Gillian Lynne Theatre last year.

They were due back on stage in March as the Childcatcher in a tour of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a role they first played last year.

The government is seeking expert advice after illegal use of ketamine surged to record levels.

In the year ending March 2023, an estimated 299,000 people aged 16 to 59 had reported use of the substance, which is controlled as class B, according to the Home Office.