Michael Parkinson: the man who made Billy Connolly famous

Parkinson, who died yesterday, is especially revered in Scotland as the man responsible for unleashing the greatest Scottish talent of all onto an unsuspecting world.

Yes, Billy Connolly would have eventually found his place in the comedy cosmos – but it was the Yorkshireman who in 1975 invited this rather wild-looking ex-hippie onto the leather chair and allowed the Glaswegian to tell a joke about wife murder, with a punchline that had Parky – and the nation – crying with laughter. “Billy was the most complex of them all – and without doubt the best of them all,” the interviewer said many years later.

Yet, part of the reason Connolly was so successful during his 15 stints on television with Parky was the interviewer’s obvious talent and relaxed manner. That’s why Michael Parkinson was able to attract Hollywood legends such as Fred Astaire and Bette Davis, and major pop stars such as Elton John and Madonna. Yes, you were aware Parky would go digging for interesting answers, but softly, giving the impression he was using a child's plastic beach spade.

READ MORE: Broadcaster Sir Michael Parkinson dies at the age of 88

David Bowie, for example, was a notoriously shy person who didn’t take to interviews at all, but Parky made him seem slightly less like a spaceman. Bowie even warmed up and told the host that he reminded him of his father.

Michael Parkinson was a journalist, and it showed. A local newspaper reporter, in the early 1960s he moved to Granada to present shows (which often featured a new band from Liverpool called The Beatles.) After fronting a film show Cinema, Parkinson was headhunted by the BBC, asking if he fancied presenting a late-night talk show.

That was in 1971, and guests in the first series included John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Ringo Starr, George Best, Michael Caine and Orson Welles. The BBC wiped the tapes, but Parkinson had made his lasting mark. He became the face of Saturday night television. His wasn’t a show, it was an event.

He built up relationships with the likes of Muhammad Ali, even daring to tackle the tricky subject of brain damage, speaking of ‘the shambling wrecks that can result from boxing.’ Ali, clearly suffering from too many head blows at the time, was upset. But he managed to put Parkinson in his place, the interviewer accepted this with good grace, and the show made for powerful television.

There’s little doubt part of Parkinson’s success was down to a soft ego, in not assuming the arrogance of the likes of the American interviewers such as Dick Cavett. “I don’t get nervous as such – I get properly on edge,” he said. “I had to overcome a fear that I wasn’t up to it. The bigger the name the greater respect I had.”

Michael Parkison (Image: FREE)

Michael Parkinson, who was a huge fan of David Frost and Alan Whicker, was always researched. He did a massive amount of homework for his 2000 interviews. And he would mark his own homework and admit when he felt he could have done better.

Such was the case with Meg Ryan in their 2003 encounter. "I wish I hadn't lost my temper with Meg Ryan," he said of the fractious conversation. "I wish I'd dealt with it in a more courteous manner. I was quite obviously angry with her and it's not my business to be angry towards the guests. I came across as kind of pompous and I could have done better."

But he also accepted that you can’t win ‘em all, such as when Woody Allen became tetchy when questioned about his marriage to Soon-Yi.

“You can do as much research as you need and you can feel confident that you know more about the guest than they know themselves,” said the interviewer, “but you can’t actually predict human relations. You can meet people you don’t like, or who don’t like you, and then you’re in trouble.”

Helen Mirren also wasn’t too keen. When he asked Dame Helen if her "equipment" distracted audiences and if serious actresses can have "big bosoms" she wasn’t pleased at all, later describing him later as a “sexist old fart.” Looking back, he reckoned that Mirren had a point.

But the interviewer wasn’t slow to offer up a little adoration when an actress commanded his attention. “I was desperately in love with Ingrid Bergman and Lauren Bacall,” he admitted. “Bacall – I fantasised about running away with her. Shirley MacLaine, I fell head over heels with. Her brother (Warren Beatty) came on the show and said, ‘Are you the guy trying to date my sister?’ And I said yes.”

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All of that, the major successes, the nights when interviews didn’t go wonderfully well, simply underlined Parkinson as human. And the watching world came to appreciate that he would bring part of himself to an interview, but not too much. He knew it was about the star.

Sadly, in later years, he also came to realise that the stars’ machinery was taking control. PR people demanded interviews be managed to within an inch of their lives. Once, when a star sat in Parky’s chair they had no idea in which direction he would swivel. And they enjoyed the challenge, the sport, the interest he showed in them. Well, most of them.

But those days are all but gone. In recent times, Parkinson felt that Piers Morgan was still doing a good job in coaxing comment from celebrities, but even the huge talent that is Graham Norton has become dated. “Graham invents a party, and he has the best jokes and gets them all together. But there’s a problem: I feel that we’ve heard it all before.”

Inevitably, Michael Parkinson’s cheeky, quizzical, sometimes hard-hitting, rather blokeish manner came to be seen as a little anachronistic. “In our ultra-sensitive world there are so many pitfalls and booby traps in life now. I think I had the best of it,” he admitted.

But we had the best of Michael Parkinson, who brought us thousands of hours of fun. “I love being in showbiz. I love asking questions. I love meeting people,” he once said. And we loved the results of his love.