Brigger

What about some of the great musical memories from the golden BBC days of Parkinson, such as this...

YouTube - Stephane Grappelli & Yehudi Menuhin BBC Live "Jealousy"

I think they also did another duet on the same show; but I haven`t found it on Youtube yet, I remember watching this and although being a `Rock` kid was blown away by the sheer brilliance of the musicianship.

David Challinor

Parkinson is an important series as it documented stars and celebrities who rarely faced a proper interview....the Wogan chat show was a joke, and so was Rusell Harty's. Whenever a film star etc has died TV news so often used a clip of the Parkinson show in its report. ....a favourite show of his featured Val Doonican telling the audience how his cancer stricken father virtually lived in his garden shed!

GRAEME

I totally disagree about Harty. Thre has never been a more intelligent interviewer with a more beguiling approach than Russell Harty.

All men leak.

hankoler

Two come to mind Rod Hull with Emu and Ollie Reed .

ShirlGirl

Michael Caine was always a very entertaining guest of Parky's. He's a great target for impersonations, but he does a very good one himself of Dudley Moore....

Click

samkydd

I thought Harty was okay too! He seemed to brush aside whatever contrived celebrity mist shrouded the guest, and spoke to them on an equal footing! Some of it was a bit embarassing like the Grace Jones outburst, but generally he seemed less in awe of his high profile guests than many interviewers!

I think he had a hard time from the media generally but he seemed very professional in anything I saw him in or heard him on! Start The Week on Radio 4 was always good with Harty, and his last TV series I think was The Grand Tour which, from what I can remember, was very enjoyable!

Had he survived he would be in his 70s now, and possibly a high profile guest on many chat shows himself!

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

billy bentley

Looking back I think Harty had a go at the space between parkinson's A-list guests and the cosy tea - time interview. Glam era Bowie, pre Gary Glitter and Molly Parkin all appeared in the early 70's and the show had a certain subdued racyness to it, for the time.

716Jones

My favourite Parky show was when he had Harry Secombe and Peter Sellers in the studio and Spike Milligan on film from Australia. A wonderful show, I even bought the record when it was released (12" vinyl!). Probably still in my loft somewhere.

CaptainWaggett

I liked the Wogan show. It was a rare week when Kenneth Williams wasn't on and Tel was less obsequious than Parky, even if he wasn't as well-researched. It was always great when he had Dallas actors on and mocked them mercilessly - no big US tv star would allow a British chat show host to get away with that nowadays.

Favourite episode - Marcello Mastroianni failing to understand a single word Tel said (luckily Germaine Greer turned up to interpret).,

christoph404

Peter Cook, Dudley Moore and boxer John Conteh all on the same Parkinson show, its hilarious. Parkinson asks Conteh the leading question, "do you have sex before a fight...." Moore and Cook sieze the moment of course with eye wateringly funny comments. Its on youtube and well worth catching up with again.