it wasn t about michael. he saw his role really as a journalist, to get the best interview he could out of his subjects. and, boy, his cannon of work, his library of parkinson interviews is a popular history of the 20th century, pretty much. do you have a favourite interview? i think i do, i think it was when he was at the rough edge of muhammad ali on one programme, which i suspect that ali thought parky was trying to trap him into reading something. i ve read in places that ali was illiterate, and in order to get himself out of the predicament, ali just turned on parky, who was completely surprised, and i bet your life that he never knew that ali couldn t read. i think he himself said that was one of his favourite interviews as well. but can you take us back to when you first met him and how you spotted his talent? yes, i was a talent agent