Michael Parkinson’s son has said the broadcaster suffered from “impostor syndrome” and “working-class guilt” over the shift from growing up in a mining town to becoming a celebrity interviewer.
Mike Parkinson said his father was less self-confident than he appeared, and had struggled with feelings of insecurity and “constantly questioning himself” despite his media success.
Michael, known for his intimate interviews with the world’s biggest celebrities, including Muhammad Ali, John Lennon and Dame Helen Mirren, on his famous BBC chatshow Parkinson, died earlier this month aged 88.
He was born in South Yorkshire in 1935 and grew up in a council house in Cudworth, near Barnsley.
Speaking to John Wilson on BBC Radio 4’s obituaries programme Last Word, Mike Parkinson said his father had remained “still very class-ridden” despite his fame.
Mike, a TV producer, said: “There were people in positions of authority, at the BBC, that were questioning his talent, questioning his right to be an interviewer. He was always acutely aware that he was with people that he felt were brighter than
him, were more educated than him.”
Despite going on to success at Granada Television and ITV, Michael harboured “an innate distrust of the establishment” and had “no interest in politics”, believing that the political system had mistreated people like his father, who worked as a miner, Mike said.
He said: “He wasn’t interested in politics … he was interested in policy. He always was quite suspicious of people who wanted power for power’s sake. What he was was very socially aware, and he was very political in that sense. And he always carried it through life – incredibly principled about things. Even to the end of his days he was very principled.”
Mike added that, despite his anti-establishment views, his father had accepted a knighthood from the Queen in 2008 because he felt it meant something to his parents. “In the end, he couldn’t honestly turn down something that would have made his father in heaven smile and beam with pride, and also not allow his mum to have a day at the palace.”
Michael was especially proud of his writing and journalism, after starting out in local papers in Yorkshire before moving to Fleet Street. “It gave him the most pleasure and it gave him the most feeling of satisfaction. He always said that ‘the day job was journalism, the fun job was interviewing’, because he loved it,” his son said.
After Michael’s death, tributes poured in from around the world from fans and high-profile figures, many of whom had been guests on Parkinson. He was hailed as being “beyond region or class” and “irreplaceable” by the broadcaster David Attenborough, the former cricket umpire Dickie Bird and the actor Michael Caine.
Mike Parkinson said the family had struggled to find space for their own grief. “The difficulty with having a public figure as a father is that you feel you can’t grieve until everyone else has. It’s a silly thing to say, but that’s the truth – you feel that everyone else must express what they feel about him because he meant so much to them.”
He thought this was because his father had been “a selfless man” who spent his career making “other people look good”.
He said: “As a family, it’s hard because your experience is overshadowed by noise and an outpouring that you feel almost that you have to step back from and allow that to happen, and allow that wave to subside. And then you, as a family, can remember him as a father, as a husband.”
