YEAR AFTER LOSS,
Shoving the umbrella in the sand, Michael Parkinson shouted: “Could you make a decision where we’re going to put this bloody thing because I feel like I’m Trooping the bleeding Colour!”
The telly legend left his family in hysterics as he struggled to find a space on the boiling Spanish beach that was packed with sunseekers.
Nearly 50 years on from that 1975 holiday, these memories are treasured as the family prepares to mark the first anniversary of his death on August 16 last year at the age of 88.
On a visit to Parky’s local pub, The Hind’s Head in Bray, Berks, where his wake was held, his son Mike admits: “It still feels unreal.
“Anybody who loses someone close probably feels the same,” he says. “But when you lose someone so well known, it’s sometimes difficult because you turn on the TV and there he is – a clip of my dad interviewing someone famous.”
Mike, 57, says summer was one of the rare occasions he and brothers Nicholas, 60, and Andrew, 64, would spend quality time with their dad, along with mum Mary.
“He was no different to any other dad that I knew really,” Mike says. “What many people didn’t see was that he could be bad-tempered, especially if [his football team]
Barnsley lost!
“Of course, he had an ego because he was a man who was on TV, but in reality, he was a private man – when he went to public events you could sense he felt nervous and insecure, hiding behind my mum.”
Hard to believe given the roll call of the world’s most famous faces who lined up to chat to him on his juggernaut programme Parkinson.
At its peak, 12 million viewers tuned in on a Saturday night to watch guests such as John Lennon and Muhammad Ali open up about their lives.
But back at home, he was a different person, Mike says.
“It’s not like he walked downstairs to his theme tune,” he says. “When we were growing up he was supercharged in his career, which meant there were times he wasn’t always there as much as we
wanted