Profiles

Parkinson was in a position to have his own personal heroes as guests. He tells us about just a few of them...

"There were other heroes of mine, like James Stewart, Henry Fonda and James Cagney and all those people. They were that generation that I grew up watching on the silver screen.

"The thing about those guys is that they were rounded people, they'd been in a war, Stewart flew missions over the Pacific and was decorated. They'd all been outside a life of being an actor or Hollywood film star. They didn't just have to speak about being film stars, they spoke about life itself because they'd experienced it.

"Today's stars... thank God haven't been through a war, but it does mean to say that they're different than the earlier ones... you have to do a different kind of interview. It's much more based on celebrity, the way that they are nowadays.

"I'm asked the question all the time about who is the best interview, and of course the only answer you can give is that Muhammad Ali is undoubtedly the most unique human being I've ever met.

"He was an extraordinary man, and I was very lucky to be around when he was around, so our careers in a sense coincided, thank God I never fought him, although there were a couple of occasions where I thought that might be possible [laughs].

"I wouldn't have lasted very long. But he was a remarkable human being, anybody who was doing a talk show at that time, or reporting sport at that time was fortunate indeed to be around when he was around because we'll never see his like again. He
was just a one-off.

"But then people like Nelson Mandela are extraordinary human beings, they have a kind of electric field around them, it makes them different from other human beings, you can actually sense when they're in the room.

"I don't believe in anything other than you can touch and see, but it's true about Mandela and Ali. That you could have your back to the door and you'd know when they walked in. There's something strange and compelling about them."