Feminist drive sees Parky look back uneasily

AS WOMEN worldwide embrace the #MeToo movement, a number of men are feeling a cold hand in an uncomfortable place: their consciences. Interviewer Michael Parkinson is the latest prominent public figure to say he feels queasy about his past actions.

“Men are in a quandary,” says Parkinson, pictured. “I mean, if I was doing now what I did then, I would have to watch myself. I could get arrested.” The #MeToo movement is, so far, a cultural shift rather than an implementation of new laws but that doesn’t stop Parky from analysing his past. “There isn’t a man of a certain age who doesn’t look back and wonder, ‘Was my behaviour entirely appropriate?’” he says, in this month’s issue of GQ magazine. “There was a bar on Fleet Street [where] women were treated

HATS off to Edmund Gordon, the winner of last night’s Slightly Foxed Award for best first biography. Gordon won for his book The Invention of Angela Carter but writer Gareth Russell, whose biography of Catherine TRICKY times for international diplomacy, and now the former Labour MP Chris Mullin reveals that he was once of interest to the US. In 1982 Mullin published his novel A Very British Coup about a Leftwing PM keen on getting rid of American nuclear bases, who is sabotaged by MI5.

“The first cheque for £6.95 came from the US embassy,” Mullin writes disgracefully, like second-class citizens. It was woefully un-PC.”

Parkinson has never been accused of anything improper, although his approach to some of his interviewees has raised eyebrows. In a 1975 interview with Dame Helen Mirren, Parkinson asked her if her “equipment” meant she couldn’t be taken seriously as an actress. “Serious actresses can’t have big bosoms, is that what you mean?” replied Mirren. The fallout still rumbles on — in 2016 he said his approach was a response to the fact that “she presented a provocative figure”. “We have not done much since to repair the damage,” he added. Despite looking into his soul and his past, Parkinson doesn’t think he could handle sitting down with Harvey Weinstein, whose fall from grace marked the beginnings of the antiharassment movement. “You would have to stop yourself from punching him first,” he says. Surely that prospect is enough for ITV to set up a TV special?

Howard was also nominated, says the process can be dangerous. “It’s like Stockholm syndrome,” he said. “You start becoming your subject. I’m Irish so I had to make sure I didn’t fall into the trap of hitting the whiskey.” Hic.

A smooth ride for ex-MP Chris Mullin

in the LRB. “Shortly afterwards I received an invitation to lunch with the ambassador’s deputy. He sent his bullet-proof Cadillac.” He was perplexed as to why. “I reckon you are among the top 1,000 opinion formers in the country,” the Ambassador said. “Well, I must be about 999,” replied Mullin. The Ambassador considered this, then: “The other 999 have been here too.”