Parky’s passion for young talent brought stardom
STARS have been thanking Sir Michael Parkinson for giving them their first big breaks in showbusiness.
The veteran chat show host, who died onwednesday aged 88, relished featuring new talent on his many successful radio andtv programmes.
One such aspiring star was jazz musician Jamie Cullum, who performed on his show in 2003.
The singer-songwriter said: “It was utterly transformative. I was not fully unknown but certainly to the wider public I definitely was.
“Obviously he had access to this huge amount of people that watched, and had the power to put virtually unknown people on his radio andtv shows purely because of his passion for this type of jazz.”
The 43-year-old, married to author and former model Sophie Dahl, added: “Whenever a young person came along with this passion for this music he loved, he really supported it and he just wouldn’t take no for an answer. It transformed my career, really.”
Sir Michael, whose BBC chat show began in 1971, knew his own power. He said in a 2021 interview: “Billy Connolly as an example. I mean, when Billy appeared on the show, nobody had ever heard of him and on he came, made one joke and it made him. It established him as a star.
“Thank God it did because you look at his career now, he is the funniest guy I have ever interviewed, and I have interviewed a few gooduns, let me tell you.”
Billy, now aged 80, said of the experience: “When I finished that show I flew back to Glasgow and the whole airport started to applaud.
“I thought, ‘I think I’ve done something here’.”
Sir Michael sat down with 2,000 celebrity guests and spoke to the likes of Fred Astaire, Orson Welles, Muhammad Ali, Bette Davis and Madonna.
Another regular guest,
Sir David Attenborough,
97, said: “He was extremely generous, he wanted you to shine and would always laugh at your jokes and give you an opportunity to make them sound funnier than in fact they were.”