Michael Parkinson

Sir Michael Parkinson, CBE (born 28 March 1935) is an English broadcaster, journalist and author. He is best known for presenting his long-running television talk show, Parkinson, from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007, as well as other talk shows and programmes both in the UK and internationally. He is also known as a radio broadcaster. He has been described by The Guardian as "the great British talkshow host".

Early life

Parkinson, or "Parky" as he is known, was born in the village of Cudworth, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. The son of a miner, he was educated at Barnsley Grammar School and passed two O-Levels: in Art and English Language. In later years he would often say that he positively "hated" being at school. He was a club cricketer, and both he and his opening partner at Barnsley Cricket Club, Dickie Bird, had trials for Yorkshire together with Geoffrey Boycott. He once kept Boycott out of the Barnsley Cricket team by scoring a century and 50 in two successive matches.