Parkinson: tired of chat shows

Press, 26 October 1989, Page 13

Parkinson: tired of chat shows

NZPA-PA London Television presenter Michael Parkinson says he would not want to interview Australian performers Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan because it would not mean as much as chatting to Fred Astaire. The 54-year-old Yorkshire presenter of “Give Us a Clue” and “Parkinson” has said in an interview with “Woman’s Own” magazine, that he is tired of chat shows. “I don’t want to sound arrogant, but my problem is who is there left to do?” he said.

“If the producer came to me and said we’re going to get Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan on because they’re the biggest stars in the world, frankly I would not feel the same way about interviewing them as I did about Fred Astaire and Ingrid Bergman.” > Parkinson also spoke of how he quit drinking two

years ago because it made him feel sour. . “I wasn’t a chronic alcoholic, I wasn’t beating my wife or anything like that. But in this business a lot of people drink themselves to a point where they forget who they are and what their responsibilities are.

“My drinking was disturbing my relationship with Mary, not only with her but with those around me.”

Parkinson said he was a long way from the drinking standard of some of the great showbusiness personalities he interviewed on television. “I’ve interviewed some of the best known former drunks in the business — people like Tony Hopkins, Richard Harris and Richard Burton.

“And God Almighty, when I hear some of the chilling stories they tell of lost week-ends and waking up not knowing how they got there ... mine was never like that.”

Speaking about his home life, he admits he is chauvinistic and says the “new” man is "nonsense.”

“I’m a chap of my times. Mary brought up the family when basically I was away chasing my ambitions and my dreams,” he said.