The son of a miner, he was educated at Barnsley Grammar School and passed two O-Levels: in Art and English Language. He was an enthusiastic club cricketer, and both he and his opening partner at Barnsley Cricket Club, Dickie Bird, had trials for Yorkshire.
Parkinson began as a journalist on local newspapers, and his carefully maintained Yorkshire background and accent remain an important part of his appeal, then as now. He worked as a reporter on the Manchester Guardian and later on the Daily Express in London. He also did National Service as Britain's youngest army captain and was involved in the Suez Operation.
During the 1960s, Parkinson moved into television, working on current affairs programmes for both the BBC and Manchester-based Granada Television and the British Film Institute has an extensive overview detailing his prolific 451 credits as a presenter on his own and teamed with others. From 1969, he presented Cinema, a late-night film review programme, before moving on in 1971 to become an interviewer and a household name in the United Kingdom.
Parkinson is best known for hosting his successful chat show, Parkinson, broadcast from 1971 until 1982 and then from 1998 until December 2007. It featured many of the most prominent celebrities, but generally avoided posing confrontational or controversial questions.
By his own reckoning, Parkinson interviewed over 2,000 of the world's most famous people. He said that he only suffered from celebrity shock once: when he interviewed his childhood hero, Keith Miller on the show. His one professional regret was that he never managed to interview Frank Sinatra.
In its heyday, Parkinson was the flagship of the BBC's prime time schedule, attracting top names in the days before the chat show circuit was established as a part of the promotional mill.
Parkinson interviewed the notoriously reticent Marlon Brando, he was able to sympathetically interview wartime variety stars while attracting (then) up-and-coming comedians such as Billy Connolly, and was not afraid to allow an interviewee time to be themselves, sometimes (as with Sir Paul McCartney) devoting an entire programme to a single guest.
He played himself in Richard Curtis' 2003 romantic comedy, Love Actually, interviewing the character Billy Mack, who is played by Bill Nighy. From 31 January to 3 February 2007, Parkinson presented "Symphony at the Movies" at the Sydney Opera House, where he shared stories about his interviews with movie stars, and introduced music from some of his favourite films. Parkinson announced his retirement on 26 June 2007:
“After three enjoyable and productive years at ITV, and after 25 years of doing my talk show I have decided that this forthcoming series will be my last. I’m going to take next year off to write my autobiography and consider other television projects. My thanks go out to all those who have worked on the shows down the years and the viewers for their loyal support and occasional kind words”.
In 2007, Parkinson appeared in the Australian soap Neighbours as himself. On 24 November 2007, during the recording of the final regular edition of his ITV chat show, broadcast on 16 December, Parkinson fought back tears as he was given a standing ovation.
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