Overlooked in the blanket coverage of Michael Parkinson’s death are the radical views he expressed well before became a national treasure for his much-loved BBC celebrity interviews. His formative socialist years were in the Yorkshire town of Barnsley, the son of a miner. That, combined with his love of sport, especially cricket, and even more especially Yorkshire cricket, was perhaps why he volunteered for the 1965 launch of Anti-Apartheid News, writing a sports column for the monthly newspaper, official organ of the British Anti-Apartheid Movement.
Then came the D’Oliveira affair. Born in Cape Town and classified under apartheid as “Coloured” (ancestry inter-racial), Basil D’Oliveira was barred by law from playing for his own country and forced to further his career abroad, from 1966 becoming an automatic choice and star performer for England.
