I’d hate to be a journalist today, says Parkinson
FORMER chat show king Michael Parkinson says he would not go into journalism today, despite a career which saw him interview Muhammad Ali and let his children play football with George Best.
Interviewed tonight on LBC by Ruth Davidson, Parky also revealed his wife Mary had “stopped” him from having the same serious drink problem as Best.
And asked whether he would encourage others into journalism, he replied: “No, I count most of my time as perfect. I got out before that t nonsense [social media] started. I don’t know why you’d want to be a journalist nowadays, I really don’t. When I consider the freedom I had to write, to roam where I wanted to, to do that unhindered.”
Barnsley-born Parkinson, 85, began his career on local papers before moving on to the Manchester Guardian and the Daily Express. In the 60s, he got his big break into television.
“To become a well-known figure,” he said, “I wouldn’t want what these people are having to go through now from social media. I think it’s appalling. It’s a death trap for the kind of life I had. I wouldn’t want a part of it at all.
“I’m not part of Facebook, I just don’t do it. It’s none of their business; it is mine.”
“I was a very lucky man to do what I did at the time. I worked with great people and had a wonderful time before it all turned sour.”
He explained how he avoided the alcoholism that blighted Best’s career.
“George wasn’t the only example. I grew
up in Fleet Street at a time when heavy drinking was not frowned upon. Well it was frowned upon, but it was there all the time. Several of my friends in both print journalism and television were heavy drinkers.
“It was the killer as far as I was concerned. Psychiatrists can make of this what they want, but the thing that stopped me was Mary, my wife. She said, ‘Do you know what happens to you, the worst thing, when you drink?’ ‘No,’ said I. She said, ‘You become ugly’. And that did it for me. Ugly! It put the handbrake on.”
Parkinson paid tribute to Best’s “bravery, his guts, his determination, his intelligence”.
He said: “He became a kind of son of the family. I mean the boys loved him, of course they did, he played football with them on our lawn. I’m looking now at a lawn where you couldn’t get the ball [off Best].”