PARKINSON’S DECEASED!
In perhaps the most “shame they didn’t die of Parkinson’s” missed opportunity since Jerry Lee Lewis, don of interviewers Michael Parkinson has gone upstairs for another chat with Ali. As a youth, Parky was smitten by Hollywood and played club cricket with Dickie Bird and Geoffrey Boycott. He remained lifelong friends with Bird, but Parky’s career diverged to a media path. He worked his way up from local rags to The Guardian and Daily Express before becoming an everpresent television face. After several years of presenting news and movie programmes, he would set the gold standard for UK talk shows with Parkinson.
Parky’s journalistic bona fides and encouraging personality made him an adept host, and bolstering the programme’s credibility was no less than Orson Welles as one of his earliest guest stars. The star power never stopped from there. His personal favourite interviewee was Muhammad Ali, who KOed Parky four times with unforgettable quips like “you are too small mentally to tackle me”. George Best was another favourite who became good friends with Parky, and Billy Connolly set a record number of appearances.
There were missteps along the way – he focused on Helen Mirren’s knockers over her talent, Rod Hull’s Emu attack chagrined him, and perhaps his most infamous was a chilly train wreck of an interview with a taciturn Meg Ryan. His biggest regrets were not securing Frank Sinatra or Don Bradman, but all the guests he did manage left his stature beyond doubt: Bette Davis, John Wayne, James Stewart, Fred Astaire, his childhood crush Lauren Bacall, all Beatles bar George, Elton John, Michael Caine, Morecambe and Wise, Kermit the Frog, Bobby Charlton, Madonna, Alec Guinness, David Attenborough, and countless others.
Parkinson had two runs (1971-1982 and 1998-2007) and in the interim he hosted other programmes like Desert Island Discs and was one of the “Famous Five” who kicked off TV-am. After retiring Parkinson, he remained a familiar TV face through guest spots and OAP life insurance adverts. A prostate cancer diagnosis in 2013 was best summarised by our own David Quantick’s Showbiz Pals: “Well at least his life insurance policy is sorted out. And he got a free fountain pen just for enquiring.” He was 88 and the suspicious beak marks pecked all over his body are pending further investigation. 22 teams Parky penned him in, including joker points for The Douglas Bader Dance Troupe 2023.
Michael Parkinson
28 March 1935 – 16 August 2023, aged 88
22 TEAMS (💀💀💀💀💀💀 6 POINTS, 🃏 (x1) 12 POINTS)