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ColinB · Guest

According to the BBC News website, veteran broadcaster Sir Michael Parkinson has criticised celebrities who attempt to front talk shows.

Writing in the Radio Times, the retired talk show host said: "The trouble with the talk show is everyone fancies their chances." He said Graham Norton's talk show demonstrated "the host has more to say than the guests".

I absolutely agree with him. The difference between Parky and others like Jonathon Ross is that Parky - being a time-served journalist who learned his craft by the old rules in that it's a good idea to actually listen to the answers your questions elicit - will choose a question in such a way that it gets a good, informative answer. How that compares to the style of has-been Ross who actively discouraged full answers on the grounds that it would lead to less time for him to hog the limelight. Ross has only ever been interested in himself - and that has led to his inevitable demise. Good!

And Ross isn't the only example - as Parky so accurately identified in his article.

Read more:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11521729

RockitRon · Joined: 07 Dec 2006 Posts: 7646

Parkinson at his peak was undoubtedly the best, but he was lucky in being able to call upon a rich vein of guests who had something interesting to say, not just plug their latest book/film/album. He knew what questions to ask and knew when to shut up and let his guests reply fully without interrupting them with wisecracks of his own. His background in old-fashioned journalism, rather than show business, helped.

Although he mentions the likes of Clive James, Terry Wogan, Russell Harty, favourably in that interview they all liked the sound of their own voices too much (especially Clive Anderson) and their shows suffered as a result.

Graham Norton actually hits the nail on the head with his comment, recognising that today's "chat show" is a very different animal, putting into perspective the different calibre of guest, and that he's not even very good at it...

" I am really bad at actually interviewing people. My chat show really is a 'chat' show, in that we do just witter on because most questions you come up with you either know the answer to or are never going to be answered.

"It's fine to have a show all about the guest if you're talking to Bette Davis or Frank Sinatra, but if you are talking to someone from Emmerdale - I mean, I am not that interested, are you?"
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Soulsister · Posted: Wed Oct 13, 2010 10:51 pm Post subject:

Personally I still think there's a place for a chat show where the guest is the star and not the interviewer. No frills, no gimmicks, just a sit down, ask the questions, and let them go type of show.

Fact is, Parky did know which questions to ask, and more importantly he was able to listen, and what annoys the (rude word) out of me is interviewers - and today they all seem the same - who can't sit still and listen for 10 seconds without butting in or making a crack, the camera is more on them than the guest, and just totally negating the whole point of the interview, and that is, actually listening to what the guest has to say.

You see and hear it time and time again - Lorraine friggin' Kelly, Norton (although he's not as bad as some) Wright on the big show, the Loose Women (how anyone can watch that tripe is beyond me!), Alan Carr ... you know all the culprits. This is why I don't mind the Rob Brydon show so much, because the bloke does actually give his guest the chance to speak, and he does actually listen to what they say and make his follow up questions lead on from there rather than taking it off at a complete tangent which so many of them do. Jonathan Ross at the end of his reign was almost unbearable. They'd utter half a dozen words and he'd be butting in there, to the point where the guest became like an appendage to the interviewer.

The absolute worst of the lot was Davina McCall - which is probably why her primetime BBC1 show bombed.

ruddlescat · Joined: 16 Sep 2010 Posts: 18010 Location: Near Chester

In my opinion Russell Harty was the best talk show host I've seen on TV
I think but for his sad untimely death in the early 80s he would have gone on to fill Parkinson's role in a much better and more professional way than the likes of Wogan Ross and Norton ever could
I stumbled across his grave in Giggleswick Parish Church North Yorkshire when I was there for the weekend a few years ago
He was a great broadcaster
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undiscovered · Joined: 15 Sep 2010 Posts: 650 Location: Peterborough

I think Parkinson was at his best in teh late 70's when the likes of Milligan, Sellers, Connoly etc all made the show a must see.
During the last few years of its run it was a little dull with exceptions of when the likes of Robin Williams, Stephen Fry went on the show but that's just them. The fact that Tony Bliar wanted to go on Parkinson rather than Humphries kind of said it all, that there wouldn't be any pressing questions.
Things have moved on in the "talk show" era, stars only come on to sell something and are well rehearsed in what they are going to say, SS I agree that Ross near the end wasn't watcheable but at his peak he would get answers out of poeple that they didn't want to say. (grammar Nathan must try harder)

I like Norton his Later show on C4 was one of the funniest chat shows. However it was more about entertainment than chat, as even GN would and has admitted.

where now though ? Brydon won't get another series it isn't that great, CE I'm not aloud to mention him on here but no.
Then it's going to be the Loose Women type of shows back patting Sad

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