i even see stephen fry saying that, the genius of parky is that he was always 100% himself, on camera and off, authentic is the word, i suppose. and we overuse that word authentic now but that would seem to sum him up. i suspect he never interviewed as a guest anyone he didn t admire and respect for their talent. and he got the best out of people. the more in awe of the talent he was, whether it was bing crosby or whoever, shirley maclaine, you name it, the better his interview. and he was charming and not aggressive and not looking for a cheap sound bite. he prodded and probed but he wanted to create, give the artist, the stars, the opportunity to express themselves and tell us who they were, not who parky was.
was bing crosby or whoever, shirley maclain, the better his interview and he was charm and not aggressive and he was charm and not aggressive and looking for a cheap sound bite. he prodded and probed, but he wanted to create, give the artist, the stars, the opportunity to express themselves and tell us who they were and not tell us who parky was. [10 and not tell us who parky was. do ou and not tell us who parky was. do you think we have lost something now that we don t have television like this with interviewers like this? it is a very different style, it was comfy and cosy and now it is all a bit aggressive and sound bity and every show somebody s selling something. it is not the same. i don t know any appointments to view like they were with parkinson on saturday night. it like they were with parkinson on saturday night. like they were with parkinson on saturday night. if you were talking to a ouna
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