Sir Geoffrey Boycott and Michael Parkinson have been friends since they were teenagers
I have known Michael Parkinson for such a long time and he was a great friend and helper. When I was 15, my uncle Algie brought me to Barnsley Cricket Club. I played at Acworth, a smaller club, but Barnsley were a big team in the Yorkshire League. There I met Michael and Dickie Bird, who was the best batsman in the league and got 50 points every Saturday. Michael was a left-handed batsman and a very good club cricketer, probably the small county standard.
I started on the second team, but by the next year, when I was 16, I had played a few games in the first team and got to know Dicky well, and then Michael, who was five years older than me.
It was the late 1950s, by which time Michael had begun his journalistic career. He not only wrote for The Guardian, but also worked on television in Manchester. It was a topical program and he often went out for interviews. For a few weeks that meant he couldn't play for us, but when he came back, I was dropped because of him.
He liked it when I got pretty good, he liked to say that he would be chosen instead of me and they kick me out. Once, when he was chosen over me, he got a hundred in Harrogate. His father was there, and Michael dragged his hundred with a tired six to the toilet where dad was hiding.
Years later, when I was playing for England, Michael would come to Lord's on Saturdays and watch the game. and then took me to his house in Maidenhead and Bray on Sunday, which was a public holiday. A lot of the guys from England were from the south, they left home on Saturday night and came back early on Monday morning. I couldn't go home to Yorkshire because it was too far away.
I spent Saturday night with him, his wife Mary, and his three sons. We had cricket practice on Sunday morning and then a nice Sunday lunch before he drove me back to get ready for Monday morning.
He made all his boys hit lefties because Michael's father told them that lefties have a big advantage because bowlers don't like to hit them across. It was easier for players like Maurice Leyland, the great batsman from Yorkshire and England. So one day we were sitting there, and Michael's son, also named Michael, who was about nine or ten years old at the time, was listening to it all, turning his head, and he said, «Grandpa, if all the best batsmen are left-handers, why Jeffrey is right handed? Michael loved it. He said it was one of the few times his father couldn't find the words.
It was Michael's father who gave him many of the ideas for the stories he was about to tell. He grew up in mining communities like him in Cudworth, watched Barnsley Football Club, watched cricket in Yorkshire before there was a TV. Michael was smart enough to embellish them with humor, such as his stories about Sid «Skinner» Normanton, who will skin your legs when he catches you in Barnsley. He told the center forward: “You can go past me and the ball can go past me. But you will not pass together!”.
It was the same with Michael's love of cinema and he did such a brilliant job hosting programs on it. Movies and Hollywood, as well as outdoor sports, were an escape from suffering for those who grew up in mining areas.
He never lost that love, nor the love of people involved in film or sports, and that is what made him so brilliant in his work. He was a real superstar. More people watched his chat show than Match of the Day. It's hard to believe, but it's true. The reason he became so brilliant at it was because he loved the people who showed up, they were his passion.
If you have a job that you love, isn't that great? So many unfortunate people go to work and do jobs they don't necessarily love but still have to earn a living. Michael loved his job. His favorite movie star was Robert Mitchum, and he named his cat after him.
Michael would tell me that he treasured the talk show because he spoke to people as if you were talking in his living room, and that's how he felt when he interviewed him. If there's a secret, it's the gift of just talking to me. My wife would tell me, «You get more honey than vinegar,» and that's true.
He liked the people he talked to and listened to what they had to say. Instead of just having a series of questions from one to ten, he might start with #1, but depending on the answer, he might take a different path. He listened and moved with him instead of asking the next question he wanted to ask.
He chatted, not a modern interviewer where it is an aggressive interrogation where they intervene, prevent the guest from giving a full answer and try to catch him. As an interviewer, you are not a star. The person you are interviewing is a star. This is the first rule. You receive reflected praise.
People have always asked, “Did you see So-and-so Parkinson last night? Isn't that fantastic?» The skill was in talking to the guests to get the most out of them, and they always felt at ease telling him stories, funny anecdotes. It wasn't an interrogation, he didn't set them up. He had no ego, and he knew it wasn't about him, it was about getting them to talk. They liked him and were relaxed, so they chatted.
Everyone wanted to come. You weren't paid much — around £100. There has never been a bargaining for fees. They wanted to come because it was the biggest show on TV, there was no hassle and it was a good interview. After that, he always invited his guests to dinner.
One day we recorded and went to dinner. He parked his car right in Hyde Park. When we got back, you could see the car, but there was an eight-foot gate in the way. Hyde Park is huge and it was late at night so we couldn't look for an open gate.
We decided to climb over, but when we got to the top of the gate, a police car drove up, flashing its headlights, as if to say «hello, hello, hello.» Can you imagine if the tabloids published this photo? Britain's biggest talk show host, famous sportsman and policeman? The officers were great, they showed us the only gate that was open. We went home laughing.
Michael has not changed in all the years of our acquaintance. His sense of humor has remained the same, and his love for sports, cinema and, most importantly, people has not changed.
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