By Rob Harris
London: British broadcaster Michael Parkinson reinvented the chat show by bringing a sharp journalistic eye for research and combining it with a laid-back style.
While guests were always in for a lively grilling, Parkinson never made them feel they were being interrogated. Here are just some of his greatest moments on television over the years.
Muhammad Ali
The jousts between Parkinson and boxer Muhammad Ali became almost as famous as Ali's bouts with Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier and George Foreman.
Journalist and talk show host Michael Parkinson interviewing Muhammad Ali.Credit: Michael Collins
The pair came together on television four times – first in 1971 and finally in 1981. Parkinson described the greatest boxer in history as “the most remarkable man I have met”.
“When people ask me who I most enjoyed interviewing, I’m unable to give them an answer,” he once said. “I interviewed him four times; I lost on every occasion.”
Their verbal sparring sessions provided some of the show’s most memorable encounters and boosted ratings by millions each time.
“I’m not going to argue with you,” Parkinson told him during one animated discussion.
“You’re not as dumb as you look,” Ali replied.
Kerry Packer
Parkinson relocated to Australia for four years from 1979 to 1983, filming his series for local television in Sydney.
He secured a major coup when Kerry Packer, then boss of Channel 9 and driver of World Series Cricket, agreed to come on his show.
“He was a wonderfully combative man and I liked him a lot,” Parkinson said of Packer years later after he accused him of “the biggest act of vandalism by any man” he’d ever seen.
“He and I had a disagreement on that [cricket] and it’s interesting to see the two of us gently losing our tempers,” Parkinson later said.
“But he was right and I was wrong. He changed the face of cricket and what we’re seeing now is the development of what Packer invented. I still prefer the traditional five-day game, but I see the point of one-day cricket.”
Ian Thorpe
Australia’s greatest Olympian, five-time gold medal winner Ian Thorpe, came out as gay during an interview with Parkinson in July 2014.
It ended years of cruel media speculation about Thorpe, which had begun when he was a teenage sensation.
“I had spent some time with [Sir Michael Parkinson] before the interview and told him, ‘you should ask me if I’m gay because I’m going to tell you I am’,” Thorpe reflected last year.
Sir Michael Parkinson during an interview with Australian Olympic medallist Ian Thorpe in 2014.
“I needed to say it. It was the first time I felt I was comfortable enough to put myself out there. It was important for me to be my authentic self.”
Thorpe told the veteran interviewer: “Part of me didn’t know if Australia wanted its champion to be gay. But I’m telling the world that I am.”
Meg Ryan
The actress was Parkinson’s most frosty interviewee on his show in 2003. She took offence at his questions about her risque film In The Cut – a commercial flop – and she sat stony-faced, gave one-word answers and ignored fellow guests.
Michael Parkinson and actor Meg Ryan on the set of “Parkinson” in 2002.Credit: BBC
When Parkinson asked in desperation what she would do if she were conducting the interview, she snapped: “Wrap it up”.
He later called her “an unhappy woman”, while Ryan called him a “nut” and said he had spoken to her “like a disapproving dad”.
However, in 2021 he apologised to Ryan over their infamous encounter saying “I wish I’d dealt with it in a more courteous manner”.
“Neither of us was on top form, and we were both discomforted.”
Billy Connolly
Parkinson is widely credited with giving the then-obscure Glasgow comedian his first big break after a taxi driver recommended Connolly as a guest.
Connolly told a hilarious joke involving an unusual parking arrangement for a bicycle. He brought down the house – and Parkinson with it. It confirmed that Parkinson’s show was a place stars were made.
“When Billy appeared on the show, nobody had ever heard of him and on he came, made one joke and it made him. It established him as a star,” Parkinson said later.
“Thank God it did because you look at his career now, he is the funniest guy I have ever interviewed, and I have interviewed a few gooduns, let me tell you.”
It was just the first of 15 invites, with the famously lewd comic holding the record for the most appearances on the show. His final appearance came on December 16, 2007, for the final episode of Parkinson.
Helen Mirren
Parkinson faced criticism after his interview with the Oscar-winning actor in 1975 was branded as allegedly sexist.
He introduced her as the “sex queen” of the Royal Shakespeare Company before quoting a critic’s description of her as projecting “sluttish eroticism”.
During the interview, he asked the then-30-year-old if her “equipment” distracted audiences and if serious actresses can have “big bosoms”.
Sir Michael Parkinson interviews Helen Mirren in 1975.
Mirren, now Dame Helen, later described him as a “sexist old fart” and the encounter as “enraging”.
The pair later patched things up when she reappeared in his show and speaking in 2019, Parkinson said: “I feel it’s of its time, and of its time it’s embarrassing. It was over the top, absolutely so.”
Barry Humphries, Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson
The legendary Australian comedian appeared on Parkinson’s programs as himself, as Dame Edna and as Sir Les over many decades, often taking over to outrageous effect.
Edna once accused Parkinson of “touching himself inappropriately” on set, with the legend interviewer laughing so hard he threw to a commercial break. Sir Les repulsed several times on set, once telling a memorable joke about his wife’s pet schnauzer, which left everyone in hysterics.
When Humphries died earlier this year, Parkinson released a statement saying he was “one of his favourite talk show guests ever”.
“Barry was a cultured, highly intelligent, fascinating man who just happened to create, in Dame Edna Everage, one of the everlasting comedy characters of all time as well as one of my favourite guests on my talk show.”
“In a time when the word is bandied around far too easily, we have truly lost a genius. I shall miss him and the dame in equal measure. So will we all.”
John Lennon and Yoko Ono
A year after the Beatles broke up, John and Yoko agreed to appear on Parkinson on the proviso there were no questions about the Fab Four.
If Parkinson “went there”, Lennon decreed, the host would have to wear a bag over his head for the rest of the interview.
Parkinson agreed – and ensured a sack was on hand. But Lennon was at his most animated when defending Yoko Ono, already blamed for his split with Paul McCartney.
“The British press called Yoko ugly in the papers. I’ve never seen that about any woman or man … She’s not ugly. Even if she was, they wouldn’t be so mean…”
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