Warnie was a ‘superstar’, but he wasn’t Michael Parkinson’s favourite interview

Sir Michael Parkinson, who has died at the age of 87, was the world’s most famous interviewer. I spoke to him late last year.

Fitz: Sir Michael, without being too mealy mouthed about it, interviewing you – even though we’ve been friends for 30 years, I know your work well and we now share the same publisher – feels a little like taking up a chisel and trying to sculpt Michelangelo. Was there a particular star you steered by in your interviews?

Michael Parkinson in 1981. Credit:

SMP: Do your research, find out everything you can, and then get them to tell the story – their story. It’s the narrative of their lives that always fascinated me, and the aim is to try and steer them to explain the previously inexplicable: to find out where their talents come from, to try and explain the great mystery.

Fitz: Your own most obvious talents, early on, were sporting. You not only opened the batting for your native Yorkshire team of Barnsley, with none other than the legendary Dickie Bird, but were good enough to once keep Geoffrey Boycott in second grade and regularly faced Fred Trueman himself.

SMP: If you were cricket-crazy back then, Yorkshire was the place to be. Those men became my friends for life, and it was that love of cricket that really opened doors for me, wherever I went thereafter, firstly in journalism.

Fitz: Which, as your new book, My Sporting Life, recounts, is where you met and became very close to the legendary Australian cricket all-rounder Keith Miller. And yet, it would seem to be an enduring regret of your life that you only once met Sir Donald Bradman, and didn’t even get close to interviewing him?

SMP: That is all true. When I looked at Keith Miller, I had an acute case of hero worship – I’d love to have been Keith. I loved being with him when he was yarning and drinking and displaying that extraordinary personality that he had. I kind of felt protective of him on television because I think he was at a time in his life where he would not have actually performed the way that I would have wanted him to – knowing him as I did.

Fitz: And your regret at not interviewing Bradman?

SMP: Nobody from Britain did! He was a closed shop. He was a book written in a foreign language. I mean, nobody did. God knows I tried often enough, only to be gently rebuffed. He was never nasty to me. He really just didn’t want to do it. I met him once at a book signing he was doing, shook his hand and said “hi” before moving on. But you’re quite right, he’s the “big cat” that’s missing from my collection.

Fitz: Pride of place on the cover of your book goes to a photo of you with Shane Keith Warne. You were there the day he bowled the “Ball of the Century”.

SMP: Yes, it was a ball produced by a superstar, and there was nothing to stop him becoming what he became. He was the greatest bowler I’ve ever seen. As a man, he was a larrikin – a gifted larrikin – and just the greatest competitor. He never contemplated the possibility that there might be a batsman who could whack him all over the park and make him look ordinary. He made everybody believe he was the greatest bowler in the world, which he was.

Shane Warne with Michael Parkinson in Sydney in 2007.Credit: AP

Fitz: As a sportsman, would you put him in the category of Muhammad Ali and Tiger Woods, for example?

SMP: Well, he was a much nicer man than Muhammad Ali, to start with. Ali was a strange man. I admired him tremendously, and I grew to like him. The more I interviewed him, the more I understood him. But Shane was, you know ... who didn’t want to watch him, who didn’t want to be with him? He was extraordinary and I still can’t believe that he’s dead. I just cannot believe it. I don’t accept it. I think he’s hiding somewhere!

Fitz: Over the years, Australia has become practically your second home. Why do we Australians resonate with you so, do you think?

SMP: I think because I resonate with you. My father used to say that “Australians are just sun-tanned Yorkshiremen”, and he was right. I’ve always been happy in the company of Aussies, and I’ve always fitted in with them. I just like the easy scholarship of Australia. Yes, I’ve met a lot of athletes. But also there’s an intellectual side to Australians that is fascinating and they are easy to be around. Moreover, they have a great sense of humour.

Fitz: I am sure you’ve been asked this many times, but looking back on all the interviews you’ve done, well beyond sport, are there particular standouts?

SMP: Professor Jacob Bronowski, the guy who did The Ascent of Man. He was my favourite interview of all, because of the way his brain worked, and he just had this wonderful methodical way about him, and an extraordinary way of telling his story.

Fitz: Can you give me a few more interview subjects who are near the top of your list?

SMP: Shirley MacLaine, because she was wonderfully female, just funny and witty and all those things. And Dame Edith Evans and Catherine Bramwell-Booth. They were just so inspiring in the way that they refused to be old, and could use that wisdom they had gained over the years to actually do marvellous interviews and at the same time be provocative. And even in their 80s, be challenging and sexy. They had a great sense of fun in life which, which is a great lesson, I think. Tony Blair, also had that great sense of fun, a wonderful sense of humour.

Fitz: What about feeling like you’re in the presence of greatness?

SMP: Meeting and interviewing Mandela was just wonderful, a really wonderful experience. It was in 2003, and we went to Nelson Mandela’s house. The crew was all set up, I had my back to the door, and suddenly I was aware that the room had gone very quiet. And now I hear the voice of Nelson Mandela:

“Where is the great interviewer?”
I turned, and said, “I am here.”
“Now, Mr Parkinson, I must tell you, that I am somewhat hard of hearing.”
“Well, sir, I do hope that you’ll be able to hear my questions.”
“I will be able to hear the ones that I would like to answer...”

Look, he was just extraordinary.

Fitz: What a privilege to meet him.

Fitz: The French have a phrase, l’esprit de l’escalier – the thought that comes to you when you’re already on the stairs of the thing you should have said, or asked, or done, but it’s too late for the moment has gone. Do you have anything like that for your interviews, for the question you should have asked?

SMP: (Laughing heartily.) Yes! After interviewing Muhammad Ali four or five times, I wish I’d dared to ask him, “What do you really think about me?” I mean, I probably couldn’t live with it, and it wouldn’t be something you put on your tombstone. But I just used to wonder about that. “Well, what does he make of me?”

What would Muhammad have thought of Michael?Credit: SBS

Fitz: And the greatest satisfaction of your life?

SMP: I think people would expect me to say the greatest satisfaction has been the television I’ve made. In fact, that was a lot of fun, and I made a bit of money and all that, but it nowhere reached the kind of satisfaction in myself that I got to rereading some of those early stories that we’ve put in the book.

Fitz: Sir Michael, it’s been a pleasure.

Quote of the Week

“I believe changes to gambling ads don’t go far enough. We need to have a conversation about whether or not gambling ads should be on at all.” – Nationals Leader David Littleproud.

Tweet of the Week

“$20 a month to keep my blue check? F--- that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.” – Stephen King.

Joke of the week

Q: What’s the last thing a drummer says before he gets kicked out of a band?
A: “When do we get to play my songs?”

Twitter: @Peter_Fitz

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