Biography for
Michael Parkinson (II) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

28 March 1935, Cudworth, Barnsley, Yorkshire, England, UK

Nickname

Parky
The king of chat

Height

5' 10" (1.78 m)

Mini Biography

Michael Parkinson was educated at Barnsley Grammar School. He left at the age of 16 and his ambition of becoming a professional cricketer was dashed when he was rejected by Yorkshire County Cricket Club. He turned to journalism, worked on several local newspapers in Yorkshire before joining the Manchester Guardian. Michael covered all sorts, from chip pan fires in Oldham to political conferences. He joined the Observer to write about sport and became a columnist with The Sunday Times.

His first work in television was as a current affairs producer at Granada Television. He joined the BBC as a reporter for "24 Hours". In 1969 he became the presenter of Granada's Cinema series. In 1971 he presented Thames Television's regular afternoon show, Teabreak. The BBC decided to give the still relatively young broadcaster his own evening chat show, "Parkinson", the same year. With his working class accent, Michael Parkinson was a breath of fresh air and over the next 11 years he interviewed many of the leading celebrities of the time.

The programme established him as one of the best known faces on television, and his fame resulted in his writing for the first edition of the British Cosmopolitan Magazine and his appearance with Jon Pertwee on the front of the Radio Times. His relaxed chat show was axed in 1982. Parkinson moved to ITV and became part of the Famous Five that launched TV AM. In 1998 the BBC resurrected "Parkinson" and the ageing presenter found himself back on prime-time. He presents his own show on BBC Radio 2, during which he plays much of his beloved jazz music. He maintains notoriety for his outspoken comments about other television personalities, the Government and the state of British sport. Michael currently claims he will retire before he's 70 and set about writing the book of his life.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous

Spouse

Mary Parkinson

(22 August 1959 - present) 3 children

Trivia

As well as being a popular celebrity and familiar face on British television, he also works regularly on BBC Radio.

Presented with the CBE by Prince Charles for "outstanding services to broadcasting". [24 November 2000]

In 1973 Michael was pictured with "Doctor Who" (1963) actor Jon Pertwee and pop singer Paul Jones for the front cover of the Radio Times. He also revealed in an interview in the same issue that he was a keen follower of the science-fiction series.

Michael loves sport, particularly cricket and football.

Was famously wrestled to the ground by Rod Hull's Emu during an interview.

Plays golf with Terry Wogan.

In 1972, he was interviewed in the first issue of the British Cosmopolitan Magazine. The article was entitled 'The most beautiful thing a man can do for a woman'.

Appears on the cover of Paul McCartney's 1973 album 'Band on the Run'.

In 2001 Michael became the landlord of the Royal Oak public house in Paley Street, Berkshire.

Father of Michael Parkinson.

Father-in-law of Fiona Allen.

Called up for National Service in 1955 and took part in the Suez operation. At age 19 he became the youngest Captain in the British Army.

Memorably panned Paul Verhoeven's Flesh+Blood (1985) in his stint as a film reviewer standing in for Barry Norman.

Presented with the Music Industry Trusts' Award in 2005 for his outstanding contribution to the British music industry.

The October 2003 appearance of episode of American movie star Meg Ryan on Parkinson's chat show has become part of British television history due to the actress's bizarre behavior in which she gave only one word answers to questions and stared icily at the host. Ryan appeared on the program to promote her erotic thriller, In the Cut (2003), but refused to answer Parkinson's questions about the drastic change from her typical romantic comedy roles. At one point Parkinson said in exasperation, "What would you do now if you were me?" to which Ryan replied, "Why not wrap it up?" About the televised debacle, Parkinson later said that Ryan was his "most difficult TV moment." He felt her rude behavior toward his fellow guests, Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine, whom she deliberately turned her back on, was unforgivable. Parkinson said, "I should have closed it. But listen, it happens. She was an unhappy woman. I felt sorry for her. What I couldn't forgive her for was that she was rude to the other guests." In a 2006 interview with "Marie Claire" magazine, Ryan blamed Parknson's paternal manner for the failure of the interview. Ryan said, "I don't even know the man. That guy was like some disapproving father! It's crazy. I don't know what he is to you guys, but he's a nut. I felt like he was berating me for being naked in the movie. He said something like: 'You should go back to doing what you were doing'. And I thought, are you like a disapproving dad right now? I'm not even related to you. Back off, buddy. I was so offended by him." Ryan also underscored the difference between American and British TV interviewing styles. "I realized it's not like an American talk show where it's seven minutes and then there's a commercial break. I had to do 20 minutes straight with this guy, and I could either walk off - which wouldn't be good - or try to disagree with him very respectfully.".

A fan of the singer George Michael.

A fan of the singer Rod Stewart.

Woody Allen accused him of having a "morbid interest" in his private life and rejected questions about the custody battle for his children during his appearance on "Parkinson" (1971) in 1999.

He was awarded the C.B.E. (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2000 Queen's Birthday Honors List for his services to broadcasting.

His favorite entertainers of all time are Ken Dodd, Frank Sinatra, Elton John, Barry Humphries, Fred Astaire, George Best, Billy Connolly, Louis Armstrong, David Attenborough and Muhammad Ali.

His favorite Elton John song is "Rocket Man".

He was awarded Knighthood of the Order of the British Empire in the 2008 Queen's New Years Honors List for his services to broadcasting.

One of the first celebrities he interviewed was Laurence Olivier on "Cinema" (1964).

His favorite episode of "Parkinson" (1971) was his interview with Jacob Bronowski.

He has named Orson Welles as the most fascinating, articulate, witty and charismatic show business guest he interviewed.

He was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute in recognition of his outstanding contribution to television culture.

A keen supporter of jazz performers such as Michael Bublé, Peter Cincotti, Diana Krall and Jamie Cullum.

Named as the first Chancellor of Nottingham Trent University on 12th June 2008.

Personal Quotes

If you can't do your job, television shows you up terribly.

I like being interviewed. It doesn't happen often enough, actually - I don't get asked enough. It's power without responsibility.

Women have it much tougher than men in this game. A 65-year-old woman with as many lines on her face as I have would not be considered for anything except a doormat - and that's sad.

There comes a time when you have been around for so long that you become like a well-worn, well-loved object on the mantelpiece.

I have the best job in the world and once you have a show named after yourself, where else do you go?

For God's sake, there are still those in the fight game who will tell you that Muhammad Ali's present pitiful state has nothing to do with the noble art.

If the government knew or cared about sport it would stop schmoozing like star-struck fans and start banging a few heads. Fat chance.

We are a nation of losers. (On the state of British sport)

I've always wanted to have my own pub. I have spent so much time in pubs over the years that I thought it might be cheaper to buy one.

(Frequent quote, re Rod Hull and Emu): "That bloody bird!"

Sinatra (Frank Sinatra) was the one that got away. Otherwise, I've met everyone I have ever wanted to meet.

The currency of being a talk show host has been reduced over the years, that's for sure. They've experimented with talk shows involving the kind of people you wouldn't normally expect to be talk show hosts. They are working on the assumption that what I do for a living can be done by anybody in the street. I'm quite offended by that. And I'm quite agitated.

I don't like the way celebrity has invaded every area of TV. I'm disappointed with the way celebrities do the jobs that were once done by people like Alan Whicker and David Attenborough. Perhaps my views are a bit old fashioned - but there you go, that's how I feel.

Journalism is not meant to exist beyond the moment it endeavours to explain. Its only other purpose is to provide the wrapping for fish and chips.

I believe in the BBC. The BBC is an important institution. It's done more for British culture than any other organization.

My show's a very old-fashioned show. It's about interviews - it's not about being smart.

I've dried up many times. The worst was when I couldn't remember John Wayne's name. After that I put the guest's name on the crib sheet. Isn't that awful?

I'd watch a talk show which I thought would be a serious contender, which means I don't watch many! Take Melinda Messenger or Ian Wright for example. I hate this assumption that talk shows are to be given to anybody who has a moment of fame, that offends me. It's not rocket science and it ain't Nobel Prize winning time, but there are certain things you must do before you are allowed to have one. You have to learn how to ask a question, listen, then ask a follow-up question. I don't blame the people themselves, I blame studio bosses for putting them there. Instead of getting people who can do the job, they want people with plastic boobs or who have played football, for Christ's sake! It makes me angry. I'm not being pompous, but it reduces the currency of what I do. A golden rule for anyone asked to do a talk show is this: If you go into a studio and rely on somebody else to give you the questions, don't go through with it, because you'll make yourself look a total, utter pillock. That's where they all fall down. You can see the poor buggers are told what to ask, the questions are written all over the studio on cue cards. It just doesn't work. My show proves there are still people out there who want to watch a good chat show. And I didn't need a face lift or my boobs adjusted to do it.

We were lucky in the 1970s because the Hollywood studio system had collapsed and the great stars, who had hitherto only existed as 10 meter giants on the silver screen, came down to earth.

In the summer of 1971 there was a gap in the BBC schedules, about eight weeks to cover. In situations like this, TV bosses think "talk show", it's cheap, cheerful, expendable. So they gave us an eight show stint and we fooled them, we just kept on going.

People like Graham Norton and Jonathan Ross don't do talk shows. Theirs are comedy shows, which they are very good at, but their guests are foils for their humor. I don't see anybody coming up to do my kind of show. The industry has decided to go for the 16 to 34-year-olds, who want something different. It misses out an awful lot of older people. (Speaking in 2005)

I don't need telling by anybody if I have done a good, bad or indifferent interview - I know. My worst was with the monosyllabic Meg Ryan in October 2003. I don't know what was wrong with her. Perhaps she was under stress. In the dressing room before the show she said I could ask her anything, but that patently wasn't true. She certainly didn't want to talk about her film In the Cut (2003), which was terrible. Nor did I like her very much. She arrogantly sat with her back to the other guests. But I'd certainly have her on the show again. We have unfinished business. Then there was Ali G (Sacha Baron Cohen) in 1999, who wouldn't come unless his answers were scripted. Here was this great comedian who turned out to be a total slave to the autocue. It was only the second scripted interview I've done. Frankie Howerd was the first. Everyone called him a great improviser, but he even had every 'um' and 'ah' written in his answers on the autocue. It was awful.

We did a 70- to 80-minute show with Duke Ellington which the BBC put out in its entirety. Can you see that happening now? They'd say 'Duke who?' Not just the BBC but ITV, any of them. 'Duke who? Can you get David Beckham on with him? Charlotte Church singing maybe?' Ah, the decline of British television. In the 70s when I first started, I would have on as regular guests Oscar Peterson, Woody Herman, Buddy Rich - Duke Ellington was there. All were acceptable in those days. No one would raise an eyebrow and say 'Why are you not having the top of the pops on?' Nowadays if you suggest somebody like that, they say 'Ooh I don't know ... who? What's he done?' It's sad. There's a generation of people running broadcasting, running television particularly, nowadays who have no musical culture beyond that which exists in the top 10. Everything has got to be so geared towards commercial interests nowadays - commercial success. Everything has to be copper-bottomed in their view. Well now and again you've got to take a punt on things, I think, that's what we're there for. (Speaking in 2007)

He was the most glorious athlete I'd ever seen. He was a total one-off. He could be extraordinarily rude and arrogant, but also childlike, funny and mischievous. A difficult man to know, but I loved him in all his moods. I went in with him four times and I lost on every occasion, and I wouldn't have missed a moment of it. (On Muhammad Ali)

Rex Harrison told me that he wouldn't talk about his ex-wives, and I said, 'Rex, you've been married six times. That's going to leave a pretty big gap'. He said 'Yes, I suppose you're right, dear boy'.

To talk to people who'd flown missions over Germany as well as played Hamlet was to deal with a different creature. There was a hinterland, a background, a testimony to having lived a life other than that bounded by the proscenium arch. That's what made the Seventies so rich for me. Today, it's different. Not worse, just different. There are the big stars but in the main, they don't have the texture. They didn't go through a war. And thank God for that. (Speaking in 2007)

I grew up in an era of entrepreneurial men, like the Bernsteins and the Grades. As journalists, we had a basic training in communication but we had to learn the new medium of television without any focus groups, without any instruction books or graphs, only the goodwill of the people who employed us. They gave us the money, sat back and said: 'Let's see what happens.' They didn't interfere. Now everyone knows everything. That's the way they have to do it. It's a much tougher commercial business. But I tell you, it's not as much fun. Whether or not it's better, I don't care. The kids nowadays won't have the fun I had. (Speaking in 2007)

When I started there were two television channels. Look at it now. Nobody knows where it's going, nobody knows what its future is, nobody knows, in a sense, even what its present is. It is a confusing world and I don't like being confused. I don't like that at all. (Speaking in 2007)

Letterman (David Letterman), Leno (Jay Leno) and Carson (Johnny Carson) couldn't interview their way out of a paper bag, but they are wonderful stand-up comics.

When the BBC asked me to do it again, I said there was only one way I wanted to do it. I'd seen all the shows that had replaced mine, and I hadn't approved of the way the talk show had gone. It was like most TV - gimmicky, very loud, vulgar, disjointed and totally incomprehensible. It had become a vehicle for the interviewer and not for the person they were interviewing.

My show has always been different, because it's journalistically based. It's not a variety show, like Des O'Connor, and it's not Gloria Hunniford or Michael Aspel. They were good shows but not journalistically based, and so their range of material was narrower than ours.

I look at the old shows and think: 'Who thought that was any good?' The way we looked, for God's sake. Ruddy great trouser bottoms and we thought we were Jack the Lad. And I wasn't a particularly convincing interviewer, either. I was very stiff. I thought I was a proper journalist, you see. I was trying to behave like a proper journalist in a showbiz situation. The trick was accepting that I was part of the showbiz aspect, too. I came to say it was like interviewing while tap-dancing. But it took a while to understand that. (On the early episodes of "Parkinson" (1971))

ITV was in trouble and still is. It was a very unhappy building to be in. I didn't want to spend the last days of a very enjoyable career in a place that was as depressed as that was. (On finishing "Parkinson" (1971) in 2007)

He was an exceedingly interesting and fascinating man, who could speak for an hour without using a cliché. (On Orson Welles)

Jade Goody has her own place in the history of television and, while it's significant, it's nothing to be proud of. Her death is as sad as the death of any young person, but it's not the passing of a martyr or a saint or, God help us, Princess Diana. When we clear the media smokescreen from around her death, what we're left with is a woman who came to represent all that's paltry and wretched about Britain today.

In the seventies the BBC was a much different organisation from nowadays. For one thing there were a lot of Indians about but not too many chiefs, and the people who ran the organisation - Paul Fox was Controller One, David Attenborough, head of programmes, Bill Cotton, head of light entertainment, Bryan Cowgill, head of sport - have their own special place in the television Hall of Fame. They presided over the biggest television factory on earth and the most prestigious. When I was in Israel for the Six Day War, I discovered my official accreditation came a poor second to my BBC Club card in the matter of impressing people and opening doors. It was the time of massive audiences, only three channels and an industry created by a remarkable generation of men and women. Much of what they see and hear on television now must make them cringe.

I object to the exploitation of the underclass in shows like "Big Brother" (2000/III). It is the modern version of Bedlam, where you pay to see the poor benighted people making asses of themselves. Why do people find "The Apprentice" (2005) appealing? When Sir Alan (Alan Sugar) says 'You're fired,' that is not a nice thing to happen. The basic premise is not worthwhile, or enthralling.

In my television paradise there would be no more property programmes, no more police-chasing-yobbos-in-cars programmes and, most of all and please God, no more so-called documentary shows with titles like 'My 20-Ton Tumour', 'My Big Fat Head', 'Wolf Girl', 'Embarrassing Illnesses' and 'The Fastest Man on No Legs'.

You have to go back to the dear departed days of Huw Wheldon and "Monitor" (1958) to find a talent able to present a documentary about Billy Connolly one week and Francis Bacon the next with both joy and authority. More importantly, the BBC is the only organisation left able to accommodate the budget of "The South Bank Show" (1978). Whatever happens, Bragg (Melvyn Bragg) has already assembled a body of work that will be revisited many times, both as a treasure trove of cultural icons and a reminder of a time when television made programmes for an audience reckoned to have an IQ larger than the numbers you would find in a bingo bag.

I think the talk show, as a conversational performance between two people, has gone. What you have now is the American style, where you have the host who is a more important part of the show than the guest. It's his cleverness, his wit and humour that steer the show. When it's well done, it's wonderful. But it's not what I can do, nor what I want to do. It's down to the way television is run nowadays, and don't get me going on that one.

Where Are They Now

(December 2007) Maidenhead, Berkshire, England

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