Veteran broadcaster Michael Parkinson has called time on his distinguished career as a TV chat show host.
"After 25 years of doing my talk show, I have decided that this forthcoming series will be my last," he announced.
Quite simply the most popular and successful of all the chat shows, Parkinson became a national institution across the UK, as he disarmed guest after guest with his quiet charm, veering most away from the inevitable plug for a book or a film into talking frankly and entertainingly about themselves.
Encounters during the series included the cream of top stars like Muhammad Ali, Orson Welles, David Niven, Jack Lemmon, Glenda Jackson, Judi Dench, James Stewart, Ingrid Bergman, Lauren Bacall, Gene Kelly, Oliver Reed, Liberace, Peter Cook, James Cagney, George Michael, the multiple visits of Kenneth Williams, and the intimidating Rod Hull and Emu in 1976.
Despite his defection to ITV a few years back, which inevitably led to a bit of a half-arsed "dumbing-down" of his show, television will never be the same again without him.
Read Michael Parkinson's potted biography
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