Parkinson
 Michael
Parkinson was the most successful of the British chat show hosts
who proliferated in the 1970s and earned a lasting reputation as a
viewers' favourite.
A Yorkshireman to the core, Michael Parkinson started out as a
newspaper journalist but later moved to Granada, where he worked
on current affairs programs, and thence to the BBC, where he
joined the 24 Hours team and also indulged his enduring
love of sport, producing sports documentaries for London Weekend
Television.
Priding himself on his Yorkshireman's "gift of the
gab," he made his debut as a chat show host with his own Parkinson
show in 1971.
Broadcast every Saturday night for the next 11 years, the show
became an institution and set the standard for all other
television chat show hosts. Relaxed, well-groomed, and attentive
to his guests' feelings, he nonetheless proved adept at getting
the best out of the celebrities who were persuaded to come on the
show, without causing offence.
 The questions he put were innocuous and in reality invitations
to the guest concerned to assume the central role.
The best
interviews were with those who had a tale to tell and the
confidence to tell it without much prodding from the host.
Parkinson was sensible enough not to interrupt unless it was
absolutely necessary.
At the top of the list of guests Parkinson had the most success
in interviewing were Shirley MacLaine, Miss Piggy, Dame Edith
Evans, Peter Ustinov, and boxer Mohammad
Ali. In 1974, however, Ali railed at Parkinson, emphasising in
no uncertain terms: "You do not have enough wisdom to corner
me on television. You do not have enough. You are too small minded
to tackle me". After the show, Parkinson's father told him he
should have thumped Ali.
 But if Parkinson ever took a personal dislike to a guest, he
tried not to let it show (though viewers were quick to detect any
animosity).
Among
those he later confessed to finding most difficult were comedian
Kenneth Williams, who appeared a total of eight times on the show
and was quick to use Parkinson as a verbal punch bag, and Rod
Hull's Emu who attacked an unusually dishevelled Parkinson in his
naughty bits and wrestled him to the floor to the delight of the
audience and the barely-concealed fury of the host himself.
Michael Parkinson was born in Cudworth, Yorkshire on 28th March
1935. He attended Barnsley Grammar School, and began his career as
newspaper journalist, originally with local newspapers and
eventually The Guardian, the Daily Express and the Sunday
Times.
Parkinson was also the co-founder of TV-AM in 1983 and
continues to host successful radio shows also.
|
