Sir Michael Parkinson dies aged 88

Michael Parkinson, one of Britain’s most celebrated broadcasters and talk show hosts, has died at the age of 88, his family told the BBC.

Parkinson started his television career with ITV’s Granada in Manchester and Leeds, however is best known for his BBC One, and latterly ITV, chat show Parkinson which ran, on and off, from 1971 until 2007. He also hosted a talk show for Yorkshire Television and was one of the founding members and presenters of ITV breakfast network TV-am.

A statement from his family said:

“After a brief illness Sir Michael Parkinson passed away peacefully at home last night in the company of his family. The family request that they are given privacy and time to grieve.”

Michael on his self-titled BBC Chat show Parkinson, in 1972

Parkinson, during rehearsals, in 1982.

Parkinson debuted on BBC One in 1971 and remained a fixture for a decade before Parky switched to breakfast station TV-am. He later launched a chat show for ITV from Yorkshire Television, Parkinson One to One, and following a best of series on BBC One in 1998 his chat show was once again restored to the weekend schedules. The show aired on the BBC from 1998 to 2004 before switching to ITV until 2007.

He interviewed some of Hollywood’s biggest names during his illustrious career, including Jimmy Cagney, Fred Astaire, Lauren Bacall and Ingrid Bergmann.

In addition to his television career, he was also a respected radio broadcaster, hosting Parkinson’s Sunday Supplement on BBC Radio 2, Desert Island Discs on BBC Radio 4 and his own sports shows on Five Live. He also wrote and narrated the YTV produced children’s series The Woofits. On millennium eve Michael Parkinson led the BBC One coverage of 2000 Today alongside Gaby Roslin and Michael Burke.

Growing up in Cudworth, a coalmining village near Barnsley, South Yorkshire, he lived in a council house as an only child. As a teenager, his father, a miner, took him down the pit to put him off working there. When his dreams of playing cricket for Yorkshire were dashed, he left school aged 16 and began working at a local paper, later joining the Manchester Guardian and then the Daily Express.

Yorkshire TV’s Parkinson One To One with guest Cliff Richard.

The Music of Morse, ITV, Michael Parkinson hosts a special programme

His first TV job was as a producer at Granada, and he later moved to Thames TV, before launching Parkinson at the BBC.

Parkinson was knighted by the late Queen at Buckingham Palace in 2008, and said of the accolade: “I never expected to be knighted – I thought there was more chance of me turning into a Martian really.”

In 2013, he announced that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer, and was given the all-clear from the disease in 2015.

He had three sons with wife Mary, who he married in 1959.