Sir Michael Parkinson’s 5 most memorable interviews

Sir Michael Parkinson’s interviews are among the many most memorable in British broadcasting.

Interviewing high-profile celebrities from each side of the Atlantic, he sat down with the likes of Madonna, Sir Elton John and Tom Cruise – in addition to Sir Tony Blair and Boris Johnson.

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But out of greater than 800 episodes of his chat present, he can be remembered for only a choose few – and never all of them for the correct causes.

Dame Helen Mirren (1975)

Parkinson was typically accused of being sexist throughout an interview within the Seventies with actress Dame Helen Mirren.

Perhaps reflective of attitudes on the time, he selected to concentrate on her portrayal as a “sex queen”, quizzing her on whether or not her “physical attributes… hindered her career” or “detracted from her performance”.

The then 30-year-old appeared uncomfortable and grilled him on what he meant, accusing him of claiming “serious actresses can’t have big bosoms”.

Reflecting on the trade years later, he “pleads guilty to being sexist by today’s standards”.

“I was my most pompous self,” he mentioned, including that it revealed “an unattractive side” of himself.

Rod Hull and Emu (1976)

One of Parky’s most well-known encounters was with entertainer Rod Hull and his well-known puppet Emu.

In later years he joked that there have been much better exchanges he’d relatively be identified for.

“I’ll probably be remembered for that bloody bird,” he mentioned.

Over the course of a number of minutes, the fake fowl relentlessly attacked him, damaging the on-set furnishings and finally wrestling him off his chair to the ground.

He managed to maintain his composure and good humour all through, earlier than finally kicking him away and attending to his ft.

Muhammad Ali (1971-81)

Parkinson interviewed the legendary boxer on 4 events between 1971 and 1981, flying as soon as to the US in 1974 to co-interview him with American speak present host Dick Cavett.

Looking again, he in contrast their encounters to boxing matches, claiming he “lost on every occasion”.

“He was confrontational, he was dictatorial, all those things… and he had that physical presence,” he recalled in 2016.

Their first tete-a-tete noticed the athlete speak movingly about his upbringing, racism and conversion to Islam.

But because the years went on their conversations obtained spikier.

Their 1974 chat noticed Ali declare: “You and this little TV show are nothing to Muhammad Ali.”

Then in 1981, he challenged Parkinson once more, saying: “I’m not just a boxer. I can talk all week on millions of subjects. You do not have enough wisdom to corner me on television. You are too small mentally to tackle me on nothing I represent.”

Although he mentioned Ali would current a unique model of himself every time, he mentioned he revelled in every probability to sit down reverse him.

“What a figure, what a personality,” Parkinson mentioned.

“I’ve seen some beautiful men in my time but he was gorgeous. Beautiful – but the gibberish he talked was extraordinary.”

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David and Victoria Beckham (2001)

Parkinson credited his later interviews with being his finest, having gained confidence and discovered from earlier errors.

In 2001 he sat down with David and Victoria Beckham to ask them about their relationship, public picture and accusations of affairs.

Quizzing former Spice Girl Victoria on how the general public’s notion of her had modified – she urged her husband’s picture had overtaken hers.

“I think they think I’m a miserable cow in high heels and I just go down Bond Street all the time,” she instructed him.

“You can get down and think ‘why don’t people understand me, why are they saying this and that’.

“But what higher individual than my very own husband to see how one can flip all of that round.”

After a short pause, she made the revelation that she “calls him Goldenballs now”, to fits of laughter from the audience, before adding: “That’s a type of issues I should not have mentioned.”

Meg Ryan (2003)

A couple of years after the re-launch of his BBC present in 1998, Parkinson interviewed Hollywood actress Meg Ryan.

The frosty trade noticed Parkinson grill the When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle star on why she needed to be an actress if she did not take pleasure in being within the highlight.

He accused her of being “wary” of journalists like him and requested what she would do if she was in his place.

Clearly exasperated, Ryan suggested she would inform him to “wrap it up”.

She later accused him of behaving like a “disappointed dad” when discussing nudity in her movies.

In a Radio Times interview, Parkinson admitted he wished he’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 guests,” he instructed the journal in 2021.

He mentioned he would apologise if he noticed her once more – a change in tune from beforehand labelling her a “bore” and “unhappy woman”.