Michael Parkinson's most famous sporting guests from Muhammad Ali to Shane Warne
Legendary chat show host Sir Michael Parkinson has passed away aged 88.
His family released a statement on Thursday which read: "After a brief illness Sir Michael Parkinson passed away peacefully at home last night in the company of his family. The family request that they are given privacy and time to grieve."
Parkinson, who hosted his eponymous show from 1971 to 2007, has been hailed as the “king of the chat show” and “an incredible broadcaster and journalist” by the BBC's director-general Tim Davie. He was also a keen sports fan and many of his best, most memorable interviews were with sportspeople.
In fact, his career in journalism and broadcasting only came about after he was rejected by Yorkshire County Cricket Club after leaving school as a 16-year-old.
His hopes of becoming a professional sportsman may have been dashed, but his interest never waned.
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Over the years, Parkinson used his in-depth research and unique style to delve into the lives of some of sport’s most famous and complex characters. Here Mirror Sport takes a look at his most memorable chats from the world of sport.
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali was a tough, confrontational interviewee (YouTube)The legendary boxer was one of the biggest characters sport has ever experienced. Ali appeared on Parkinson on four occasions over the years and it was always box-office viewing, with the American discussing topics such as racism, politics and religion, as well as boxing.
In a memorable clip from 1971, Ali questions why all people from the Bible were depicted as white, why Tarzan and Miss World were white, why the President lived in a White House and why Mary’s little lamb had to be white.
Ali could be funny, but he was undoubtedly a difficult man to interview. In later chats, Parkinson had to try and cope with his intimidating presence and his unpredictability.
“I'm not just a boxer. I can talk all week on millions of subjects,” Ali declared in one of their interviews. “You do not have enough wisdom to corner me on television. You are too small mentally to tackle me on nothing I represent.”
Speaking on Good Morning Britain in December 2016, Parkison recalled their interactions. “I think of all of them, Ali was the most unique,” he said. “Because he was an ill-educated man, if educated at all. He was dyslexic, he could barely write or read. But he was articulate to a degree, he’d talk you off the screen and he did it to me two or three times. He didn’t talk to you, he shouted at you and lectured you and if you challenged him that’s when the tables would turn and the fun really started and when he changed.”
He added: “He was impossible to like. He was confrontational, dictatorial. All those things.”
George Best
Michael Parkinson came friends with George Best and wrote a memoir about the footballer (Getty Images)George Best was interviewed by Parky in 1971, 1973 and later in 2001 and Parkinson even wrote a memoir about the legendary footballer after becoming friends with him. During his latter years at Manchester United, he was open about the pressures that fame brought him.
“I don't go into pubs and walk up to people and ask them if they want a fight,” he told Parkinson. “If I walk into a bar or a club, there's always someone who wants to come up and hit you over the head with a pint pot and then go to work on Monday morning and tell their mates.
“I used to put up with it, but if they're going to walk up and threaten you, if you smack them in the mouth first, they're not going to go and tell their mates they sorted you out, are they?
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George Best was one of Michael Parkinson's most famous interviewees (PA)“It happens everywhere. I've been hit over the head by a 65-year-old woman! I was sitting watching a show, and she walked up and hit me over the head with her handbag. I don't know. Maybe she wasn't enjoying the show.”
In 2001 as Best had been diagnosed with severe liver damage and was on a waiting list for a transplant. He told Parkinson: “Alcoholics Anonymous works for a lot of people and it saves their lives, but it didn't work for me.” Best died in 2005, aged 59.
Shane Warne
Michael Parkinson interviewed Shane Warne in 2007 (YouTube)Parkinson interviewed the great Australian leg-spinner in 2007, after he had retired from international cricket. He grilled him on his next steps – whether he might coach England – and, as a cricket lover, got deep into the mind of one of the game’s greatest ever players.
But he also probed around personal issues and controversy. Parkinson asked about Warne’s divorce from his wife Simone Callahan following reports of infidelity on his part.
“We still live together [but] we had to [get divorced]. We had to realise what we both wanted. At that stage, some of the things that I’ve done and the mistakes I’ve made, which I’m not proud of – but it shows I’m human and I’ll probably make some more in the future. But that’s happened, there’s no use regretting what’s happened, you can’t change it. You’ve got to live with it and try and deal with it.”
Shane Warne retired from international cricket in 2007 (AFP via Getty Images)He also brought up two of Warne’s controversies – his one-year ban for taking a banned diuretic and the fact he had taken money from a bookmaker to provide insider information.
Warne described how a $5,000 loss at a casino and an introduction to ‘John the bookmaker’ had led him down a dark path. John, a friend of team-mate Mark Waugh, had offered to replace his casino losses with no strings attached. “A stupid thing to do,” Parkinson interjected. Warne said he did not know John was a bookmaker and later gave information over the phone about weather and pitch conditions before Australia matches. "Once I found out that, I never took any call again from him."
“The drug thing, that was pure vanity,” Warne added. “There was nothing else, no sinister thing to it.”
David Beckham
The "Golden Balls" nickname came from Michael Parkinson's interview (BBC)Not all of Parkinson’s most memorable sporting interviews were hard-hitting. One of his most famous came with David and Victoria Beckham in 2008.
Victoria was praising the way her husband had turned his reputation around following his infamous red card at the 1998 World Cup when she let slip: “David is…I call him Golden Balls now… You know because now…”
“Golden Balls Beckham, it’s a good one, eh?” Parkinson laughed. Victoria immediately followed it with: “That’s one of those things I shouldn’t have said.” But the cat was out of the bag – and the nickname would stick for years to come.
Ian Thorpe
Ian Thorpe came out as gay to Michael Parkinson (Parkinson Productions)It was in an interview with Parkinson in 2014 that hugely successful Australian swimmer Thorpe came out as gay to the world.
“I've thought about this for a long time. I'm not straight,” he said. “And this is only something that very recently, in the past two weeks, I've been comfortable telling the closest people around me exactly that.
“I don't want young people to feel the same way I did. I've wanted to for some time. I couldn't, I didn't feel as though I could. The problem was I was asked at such a young age about my sexuality. I went to an all-boys school, so if you're accused of being gay then the first answer is no and you get ready for a fight.
“I didn't know at the stage, I was too young. I carried this. I thought that the lie had become so big that I didn't want people to question my integrity. A little bit of ego comes into this. I didn't want people to question whether I'd lied about everything.
“Yes, I lied about it. I'm comfortable saying I'm a gay man. My parents told me that they love me and that they support me. Part of me didn't know if Australia wanted its champion to be gay. But I'm telling the world that I am.”
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