Sir Michael Parkinson dislikes watching his old interviews back

Virgin Radio

3 Nov 2022, 17:01

Sir Michael Parkinson has a lot to be proud of, however he doesn't really like watching his old interviews back.

Appearing on BBC Breakfast, presenter Naga Munchetty asked him if he ever gets sick of seeing old clips of himself interviewing people.

"Do I get sick of it?" he asked.

"Absolutely, yes I do. Because I don’t recognise the person. It’s a disguise, this is a disguise. All of it.

“You’re not yourself at all, it changes you, no matter how considerate you might be of the problems of being famous, it changes you and it’s bound to.”

Asked how it changes people, he went on: "Just people's reaction to you.

"And it makes you sometimes a worse person than you are."

This isn't the first time he's confessed to not liking his early appearances.

Speaking to Lorraine last year, he said he was embarrassed with his accent. 

He recalled: "The big break came in 61/62 when Granada Television in Manchester, a wonderful company to work for in those days, asked me to do a screen test, and I did and I look now with terrible embarrassment at the way I used to speak."

"I was terribly posh, 'Hello, how are you?' I don't know where I got that from – nobody in my family or immediate friends spoke like that at all, quite the opposite.

"But there I was, terribly posh."