When was michael parkinson born

The spivs, the get-rich-quick kids, the chancers took over, leaving people like Bobby Robson perplexed and dismayed. But Robson will be remembered long after the present lot are old bones. By his decency, his humour, his love of the game's traditions and origins, and confusion at what it had become, he made present day football look what it is - shabby by comparison.

I can think of no more fitting epitaph. Billy Wilder did not suffer fools so for Tony Curtis to work with him and make that film shows just how good he was. He was an extraordinary man. Hollywood tried to make him into a sex symbol in the s and s but he was his own man. He was a great chat-show guest and was wonderfully indiscreet but he was very bright and did not take himself too seriously,.

He doesn't make me laugh. I don't think his style of talking is particularly beautiful, funny or creative. Not at all. Do I like them? Oh you know Better than that bloody rap stuff, that's for sure. On the Arctic Monkeys. That, to me, is the joy of music. It must be wonderful to be as creative and happy as that. Most artists aren't, are they? He said to me: "If you talk about The Beatles , you'll have to climb inside a sack.

Very strange lady. Anyway, I asked him about the Beatles and we got into this sack. As we were both smoking at the time, I remember thinking, "This must look like we're sitting in a bloody tepee. Someone once described it as 'a suite' of songs but that's too polite for the anger that drives this, the most powerful of concept albums. Time magazine described it as Motown's most important LP. It is also permanent testament to a great artist.

This is from the Lady in Satin album, her last before she died, and 'But Beautiful' is a great singer's swansong. The trumpet by Mel Davis is so powerful it sounds like his tribute to a diva like no other. On "But Beautiful" by Billie Holiday. When anyone asks why I love big band music I tell them to listen to this. If they still don't know I cross them off my Christmas card list.

Pete Myers's arrangement of Cole Porter 's classic song is perfect. Plus, there's Buddy Rich on drums. Who is he? His pitch is appalling. It was like Tony Christie with his teeth taken out. On Richard Hawley. I don't like the people who are running television at present, actually. I don't like what they're doing with television. I see now a difference between celebrity and fame. I see different people getting to be on television who, in my view, have got no talent whatsoever.

That may have been always the case but there's a predominance now of that kind of thinking, which is kind of tabloid thinking in a sense, and I think that it's doing damage to all of us. It's about very skilful people manipulating the market. It's about a trend that's been set by clever people who work out a demographic, if you like, who look for an audience, particularly a younger audience - 16 to 34 - and go for that.

I think that Simon Cowell is a classic example of what I'm talking about. Here's an extremely clever entrepreneur, that's what he is. He's a wonderful marionette, he has the puppets playing all underneath him, but he's dictating the shape and form of television in this country. It used to be that people who were versed in showbiz, people who were proper entrepreneurs, people who were proper showbiz people used to run that, and I trusted them more than I trust this lot.

That's all I'm saying. Now it doesn't matter what I think because I'm out of it now and I can actually look down at the landscape from my view and say, 'I don't like what I see. It doesn't matter. But it grieves me because I've been in this business for 50 years now and I love this business, and I've had some wonderful times in this business, and I hate to see it being downgraded to something else.

It's sad in a way because Jonathan Jonathan Ross can interview when he puts his mind to it. He's clever and bright, but has gone with the jokey thing. What's missing is the kind of show I did, which was more conversational. He would always lie about his age, so I dug up a copy of his birth certificate and would pin it on the noticeboard. He'd rip it down and I'd stick another one up.

He came on my show as a guest once and was a prat. He was 'uninterviewable' - you could never see beyond his act. I was aware of the rumours at the time but they were just rumours. It's horrendous. I wouldn't want to interview Cheryl or a winner of Big Brother - I'm interested in actual talent.

I want to talk to people with something to say. She was in a very bad place - a very unhappy woman promoting a terrible movie. I never watch any of my interviews back, but that's the one I can't avoid because it is all over YouTube.

I've wanted to do a show like Parkinson: Masterclass for years, with proper musicians and artists - people at the top of their field but not necessarily celebrities - showing how they do what they do.

I knew Savile [ Jimmy Savile ]. I didn't much like him. That's not hindsight. I couldn't understand why he became so popular. But I'll make one observation about the BBC. The BBC got a kicking on that. But at least he had a reason for being at the BBC. He was employed by the BBC and he had to work there. What on earth was he doing, what was his reason to be at Broadmoor? What was his reason to be at Stoke Mandeville?

What was his reason to be at the hospital in Leeds and, particularly, what reason did he have to go to a school? Come on. That's the worst aspect of it, I think. But he was not a man who sought the company of people, with hindsight now, who couldn't help him. In those days, we didn't know he was being selective, we just thought he got his own gig and off he went to do it.

Nobody ever got really close to him at all. Sometimes I think that being paid to go to the movies is the definition of paradise and sometimes I sit there thinking, "What on earth am I doing watching this tripe? Television in the 60s and 70s was a thrilling and exhilarating business to be part of. There were few rules, focus groups had not been invented - or if they had they were generally ignored.

The newly formed ITV stations were run by gifted entrepreneurs and the BBC by an adroit mix of showbiz and journalism. Producers were unencumbered by such irksome obstacles as compliance, health and safety and frustrating commissioning procedures.

The biggest difference of all between then and now was defined To indicate how much this obsession has distorted the standards set by the likes of Frost and Whicker, let us compare Tonight featuring Whicker, Fyfe Robertson, Cliff Michelmore, Trevor Philpott et al with its present-day equivalent.

The One Show is an agreeable frolic but it's hardly a finishing school for a generation of television reporters. We then showed each other at the same time. We all agreed he would not be our first choice as a crewmate on a deep-sea cruise! Michael Parkinson was knighted by the Queen at Buckingham Palace on June 4 , after retiring from Parkinson at the end of the previous year.

His proudest moment of his career through was being awarded honorary membership of the Musicians Union. To be accepted into their inner circle without an ounce of musical talent is a real honour.

Alan Titchmarsh on his humble beginnings and romantic side. Celebrity and TV. Yours Magazine. Retirement Services. Prev Next. Joanna Lumley young, her age and husband. Born in Cudworth, near Barnsley, South Yorkshire, in , he left grammar school at the age of 16 with two O-levels and began his career at the Barnsley Chronicle.

His big break came in with a weekly sports column in The Sunday Times. His work in television began when he was invited to join the production team of regional current affairs programme Scene at 6. In he left television journalism to become the presenter of Granada's perceptive film magazine series Cinema ITV, , following previous presenters Derek Granger and Michael Scott. The BBC decided to give the still relatively young broadcaster his own evening chat show, "Parkinson", the same year. With his working class accent, Michael Parkinson was a breath of fresh air and over the next 11 years he interviewed many of the leading celebrities of the time.

The programme established him as one of the best known faces on television, and his fame resulted in his writing for the first edition of the British Cosmopolitan Magazine and his appearance with Jon Pertwee on the front of the Radio Times.

Michael Parkinson was educated at Barnsley Grammar School. He left at the age of 16 and his ambition of becoming a professional cricketer was dashed when he was rejected by Yorkshire County Cricket Club.

He turned to journalism, worked on several local newspapers in Yorkshire before joining the Manchester Guardian. Michael covered all sorts, from chip pan fires in Oldham to political conferences. He joined the Observer to write about sport and became a columnist with The Sunday Times. His first work in television was as a current affairs producer at Granada Television.

He joined the BBC as a reporter for "24 Hours". In he became the presenter of Granada's Cinema series. He was called up for National Service in and took part in the Suez operation. At the age of 19, he became the youngest Captain in the British Army. Michael Parkinson Producer. Physical Status Height 5' 10" 1.