Profiles

'Parkinson' was born in 1971, and the TV host quickly became a household name across the country. Over the years the king of the chat show has become as famous as his guests. BBC Radio Sheffield's Steve White spoke with Parky ahead of his last show to be aired on Sunday, 16 December, 2007 looking back at his career.

"It doesn't seem that long, that's for sure. I can remember very clearly the first series of the show, thinking that it would last about 10 shows or so.

"It was a summer replacement, we were only booked for eight shows... and we folded that particular series 361 shows later, so we must have been doing something right [laughs].

Film legend Orson Wells

"Because of the reputation we quickly established, of getting big guests on the show, the rest of them followed. The crucial one way back in the '70s when you struggled like all talk shows do to get the A-listers. In those days the most respected name around was Orson Wells.

"So we decided if we could get Orson Wells the agents would find our show irresistible. We actually door-stepped Orson Wells who was making a film in Spain, kidnapped him, put him on board an aeroplane and drove in blinking into the studio [laughs], and
from that point on it all changed. All the agents and all the stars said 'well if Orson Wells will do that show I will'.

"Over the years we just built up a reputation, and when they came on the show they enjoyed it because they were allowed to talk on the show, were allowed space to think and breathe."

Billy Connolly

"Billy is an old mate, we gave him his first break in television in 1974/75. I was in Glasgow and a taxi driver actually gave me Billy's album. I'd never heard of him, I just took it home and about three week's later my eldest son Andrew said to me, 'have you heard that record yet dad?'

"He said 'you must play this, it's brilliant.' So I put it on and I could only understand half of it, in those days Billy had an extraordinary Glaswegian accent you needed subtitles, but by God he was funny.

"We called him up and said will he come on this show and 'will we?' They said, 'we'll walk him down from Glasgow'. So he came on the show, and from that point on overnight he became a huge success.

"I think he's done the show 17 times, he's on the last show that we've done and I think that was his seventeenth occasion. The thing about Billy is that he's bright and intelligent as well, he doesn't just tell jokes - he's just being Billy Connolly."