He pioneered new formats, could get almost any guest in the world and conducted the best interviews ever. Parky was one of the finest broadcasters of any era
Parkinson, a promising cricketer in his youth, speaking on BBC’s Test Match Special as England took on New Zealand in 2015.By its second series, though, the show had become a schedule fixture for the BBC, although executives tried to nudge it further towards light entertainment and away from the presenter’s self-image as a newsman. This distinction was interestingly signalled by trails, recorded during camera rehearsal and screened early on Saturday evening.
It was not coincidental that a thwarted Parkinson chose this time to expand his career geographically. Unlike Frost, who for many years sustained series on both sides of the Atlantic, Parkinson never broke into the US talk market. But he achieved a parallel career in Australia, which had the advantages, during the English winter, of sun and cricket.
In a TV culture where public service still just about held sway, contracts could be won by creative credentials rather than just the highest bidder. This was crucial to what went wrong. Frost cannily gathered broadly upmarket hosts – himself, Parky, Anna Ford, Robert Kee, Angela Rippon – who made TV regulators swoon, but who morning viewers found a tough chew with their toast.
Almost all of TV-am’s original stars were gone by 1984. ExtendingParkinson’s bad luck with puppets, the station was saved by children’s entertainer Roland Rat , and introduced to a range of younger talent including Nick Owen and Anne Diamond who, in a small legacy for the Parkinsons, any viewers assumed were a couple . Another consolation was that Parkinson’s TV-am shares ultimately proved lucrative.
However, a teenage viewer with learning disabilities subsequently killed himself, leaving a note that seemed to attribute his distress to having taken the transmission for reality. The broadcasting regulator ruled that the BBC should have labelled the show clearly as fiction, rejecting the defence that this would have ruined its impact as a mockumentary.
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