17 August 2023 , 11:23
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The late Sir Michael Parkinson expressed his delight at being able to repair his friendship with fellow knight Sir Billy Connolly – sharing his joy in what turned out to be one of his last ever interviews in which he described himself as "lucky".
News broke on Thursday that the broadcasting legend had passed away at the age of 88, with a statement from his family revealing: "After a brief illness Sir Michael Parkinson passed away peacefully at home last night in the company of his family." He had been well respected in the broadcasting world for decades due to his celebrated talk shows.
Sir Michael was a guest on Piers Morgan's Life Stories back in June 2019 where he reflected on his life and career. And during his time on the show, he told how he patched things up with 80-year-old Billy, broke up an engagement after falling for his wife and soulmate Mary – and explained how he wants to be remembered after death.
He said of Connolly: “I don't think it was Billy so much as Pamela. I think so. I would never deliberately hurt Billy at all. When I was making the observation I was making, that he'd slowed down a bit, it was not a diagnosis. It was the observation of a friend to another friend.
Sir Michael Parkinson said he was glad he repaired his friendship with Sir Billy Connolly before he died (Shutterstock)“It was an awards thing. He was on heavy medication and it got to the stage I was with him. And he made a very softly spoken speech. And then as we were leaving, he stopped me, and put his hands on my shoulder, and said to me 'how long have we known each other?' And I thought, maybe wrongly, that he didn't really know who I was. I could be wrong and I hope I was. I think he was trying to remind himself.
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“But look, Billy and I have known each other for years. So I wrote him a letter. I sat down and wrote him a letter and said, 'there is no way in this world I would hurt you, or deliberately demean you' and I got a lovely reply saying 'let's go back to how we were, old friends'.”
Discussing his own wife, Mary Heneghan, who he wed in 1959, the late star said: “I met her on top of a bus. But there was a problem, I was engaged and she was engaged. I know it's terrible. I was on the verge of breaking up, and I think she obviously was too. Well, I don't know. Anyway I went to the hotel in Doncaster, and she was dancing with her boyfriend who was in the RAF and they were playing a song, and I knew the lyrics. So I interrupted them on the dance floor, and asked her to dance. It wasn't the dancing that won her over, I'm not sure what it was actually. But I was smitten by her. No, we didn't stay in touch with ex fiancees. We left. I never went back home.”
Michael reflected on his life in a 2019 episode of Piers Morgan's Life Stories (ITV)Parky reflected on his personal health - having faced challenges including prostate cancer and a back operation - saying: “I have been lucky all my life, I got through it and a lot of people don't. It changed me in many ways, because you think about the possibility you are going to die. I thought about the things I would be missing, the family and the house, cricket. The life I have had.
“I am still clumsy and that will always be. The brain is working OK accept the occasional lapse of memory. I would like to be able to feel a lot stronger, there is a lot to do. I hope my family enjoy life I much as I do. All I know is in my life I got joy from family and the people I met and the jobs I have done. From that point of life I am a fulfilled person.
“Nobody had a more interesting and involving life than I have."
And addressing death directly, he said: “What happens when you die? Nothing. The worms. I am not a religious man. I would like to be buried I think, I know the music I would want, Ella Fitzgerald. a bit of Frank(Sinatra) and a bit of Jazz and all that.
“I just want to be remembered as someone who had a good time, lots of good mates and wrote the odd good piece and did the odd good interview. That's enough.”