In Britain, he was considered the “greatest broadcast interviewer of our age,” compared to David Frost (with whom he started short-lived TV-AM), and to Johnny Carson in the U.S. Michael Parkinson, who started out in newspapers, died August 16 in England at age 88.
Parkinson left school at 16 and became a reporter for The South Yorkshire Times. Subsequently, he wrote for The Manchester Guardian, and The Daily Express in London.
He moved into television first with Manchester-based Granada Television, then in 1971 he started his own show Parkinson on the BBC. The program lasted until 2004 (with a 16-year hiatus from 1982-98). After that Parkinson moved to ITV until 2007, year of his retirement. In the same year he appeared in the Seven Network Australia’s soap Neighbors as himself.
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