Today.s guest was born near Barnsley, and had two ambitions as a boy – not to follow his father down the mines, and to play cricket for his beloved Yorkshire. As life has turned out, as he might say, ‘he’s not done too badly for himself’ – a glittering career away from the mines, and a near-miss on the cricketing front – he did open the batting with Dickie Bird at Barnsley Cricket Club and had trials at Yorkshire together with Geoffrey Boycott.
Michael Parkinson began his career in the media working as a local newspaper reporter in Yorkshire, before transferring to what was then the Manchester Guardian until he became a feature writer for the Daily Express in London.
He began what was to prove an outstanding career in television as a current affairs producer with Granada TV before switching to the BBC.
In 1965 he began writing a weekly sports column for The Sunday Times and introduced the world at large to the likes of Skinner Normanton – and selections were published in book form including one ‘Cricket Mad’ in 1969.
More television work followed with Granada – as presenter of ‘Cinema’ – and he also published a book about Westerns – his favourite film genre. But it was in 1971 that he began what was to become his most famous television work – presenting his own talk show for the BBC – ‘Parkinson’ – which he presented on either BBC or ITV, as well as in Australia, up until his retirement last year. “Retirement” may really mean “pause”, just for the time being – we shall see! In the process he became a household name and managed to elicit confidences and forthright opinions from more than 2,000 of the most famous people in the world, whilst putting his guests at ease and only rarely ruffling feathers!
Michael is the son of a cricket-mad ex-miner, grew up emulating his heroes in street games, and became an enthusiastic club cricketer. His subsequent cricketing CV includes hosting a World XI against Yorkshire at the 1990 Scarborough Festival and a similar role (‘Parkie day’) at his local club at Maidenhead & Bray CC, where he is President, with an annual celebrity charity match.
He was awarded a CBE in 2000 and knighted for services to broadcasting in 2007.