Love, Luck & Impossible Sadness

At 84, chat show king Sir Michael Parkinson is heading to Australia for a stage show in which his son, Mike, turns the tables to interview him. Here both Michaels open up to Juliet Rieden about the towering highs and dark lows of a very lucky life.

- Juliet Rieden

Sir Michael Parkinson retired from his TV interviewer’s chair 12 years ago, but he is still considered beyond compare. Today’s youth probably have no clue what the magic of “Parky” was all about, but one mention of his name and a wave of glorious nostalgia washes through anyone over the age of 40.

In the UK, stars hadn’t made it until they’d revealed their most intimate stories on Parkinson, while on his shows in Australia the likes of Bob Hawke and Kerry Packer succumbed to the bluff Yorkshireman’s cajoling. The interviews were candid, sometimes awkward, often flirty, controversial, explosive and always fascinating as the most famous folk in the world, from Lauren Bacall to Muhammad Ali, Helen Mirren and Madonna to George Michael, even W.H. Auden, provided compulsory viewing for at least two generations and possibly three.

Parky posed some 80,000 questions to more than 2000 stars in his stellar career and the footage of those chats is pure gold, a time capsule of social and entertainment history, and the impetus for his stage show An Evening with Michael Parkinson, which begins its Australian tour on October 10. It has been pitched as Parky’s farewell tour, but Sir Michael – who was knighted by the Queen in 2008 – is having none of it. “I don’t think I ever said that,” he responds with an affronted guffaw, quickly adding, “I hope to God it’s not… it sounds too final.”

At 84 you might think this a fair assumption, but his son Mike, who produces the show and interviews his father on stage, explains. “My dad doesn’t play golf, he doesn’t potter around in sheds. His work’s been his hobby; his hobby’s been his work. As we get older, as we get on, if you’re lucky enough to have a situation where you enjoy what you do, why on earth would you want to give it up?”