Such as david bowie and paul mccartney. And in 2001 Victoria Beckham let slip that her nickname for husband david was goldenballs. 0ur arts correspondent David Sillito looks back at his life. Dont you get fed up of each other . Oh, yes, yes. I call him golden balls, you know, now. Did you ever say, you dirty rat . Never. Jimmy cagney. Orson welles. Jimmy stewart. These were distant, mysterious screen gods until parkinson brought them into your living room. The fact is that youre a crowd puller and frazier s not, is he . Why is that . Well, number one, hes ugly. His interviews with muhammad ali were unmissable. He has no rhythm, no footwork, no class. He cannot talk. And who told him he could sing . But of all those 2000 or so guests, one always haunted him. I interviewed everybody from Henry Kissinger to Billy Connolly to james cagney to dame edith evans, all those people. And im only remembered for one thing, i was attacked by a sodding emu. Hes not aggresive Rod Hull And Emu Rather p
the end of the 60s, start of the 70s, a lot of the great hollywood stars who had seen farnon who had seemed far distant mythical figures, they were free to go on tv, out of contract, and suddenly there was a moment when michael parkinson would say, ladies and gentlemen, fred astaire. fred astaire was someone he had grown up watching, in a top hat, and that he was at the top of the steps. betty davis, 0rson and that he was at the top of the steps. betty davis, orson welles, jimmy cagney, jimmy stewart, these were people who know one really in the audience had heard them talking about their lives and they were absolutely riveted. when david niven began to take his anecdotes about behind the scenes of hollywood people were riveted and they had not heard this before. this was event television. 0rson heard this before. this was event television. orson welles, he said, forget the questions, let s just talk. the programme went all the way