He normally was very fair and was seen in some quarters as a kind of grandfather of british television having been on from the 60's till recently, to compare him to a British name more familiar with americans he would be quite similar to David Frost in style and presentation. I was actually suprised at the baiting he's had a few issues with interviewees over the years most famously Meg Ryan but he mostly was very nice and respectful to his guests, I imagine he had a bee in his bonnet about Wayne's politics or was told to make an issue of it by his superiors the things he says were very common questions posted to DUke at the time. There's an interview with Jimmy Stewart from a similar period and it's like watching a different guy doing the interviewing, whatever reason he was out for Duke that day. He seemed to well liked by most of those he interviewed and I think he's still quite firendly with the likes of Muhammed Ali and the comedian Billy Connolly.
Posts from The Irish Duke in thread „John Wayne Michael Parkinson Interview“
-
-
Parkinson was very popular over here in the U.K his talkshow was always the bench mark for all talkshows and I would compare him to perhaps a British Larry King or maybe Johnny Carson but his show didn't have anywhere near as much comedy as Carson. He had such a long career he became a household name here but I feel in that video it's clear he's baiting Duke for an angry reaction to get his own name in the paper or to make an incident of it, I lost some respect for him after that.
