I’m always interested in successful people who come from working class backgrounds, I guess it reminds me that anything is possible. Michael Parkinson is one of those people.
I like his quiet, unassuming manner and wonder if it has anything to do with his background. You know the old argument, what makes the man – environment or heredity. Did his early childhood impact on his character or is he merely the product of his ancestors’ genes?
He was born on a council estate in Cudworth, a mining village in South Yorkshire. It had the nickname 'Debtors' Retreat' and the rent collectors always went around in pairs. Every day, his father walked three miles to the pit, labouring eight hours underground. He was paid seven shillings a shift.
In his early teens his father Jack decided to take Michael down the mine. He saw men working on their knees, covered in sweat, toiling away at the coal, he saw the lamp his father used to test for methane gas and he saw the eternal darkness and suddenly he knew what hard work really meant.
Then his father gave him a pick said ‘Let’s see if you’d make a miner son’. But the harder Michael hit the coal, the more the pick bounced off the surface so his father showed him how to find the fault and when he tapped it, a chunk fell out and rolled onto the floor.
When they reached the surface and were walking out of the pit gates his father asked him what he thought of his day under the ground. Parkinson replied 'You wouldn't get me down there for 100 quid a shift,' he said.
“That’s good” his father said “But be warned that if you ever change your mind and I see you coming through those gates, I’ll kick your arse all the way home”.
But destiny had other ideas for Michael Parkinson and he went on to host one of the most successful television shows of all time. Thanks for all the good times Parky, you’re the greatest.
Sir Michael Parkinson accompanied by his wife Lady Mary Parkinson after receiving his Knighthood from the Queen at Buckingham Palace in June
No comments:
Post a Comment