Sir Michael Parkinson RIP

 A great Yorkshireman died this week.

Sir Michael Parksonson CBE, who was born in  1935 in Cudworth, near Barnsley was the son of a miner. He went to Barnsley Grammar School.

He had a passion for cricket throughout his life: he was a club cricketer, and both he and his opening partner at Barnsley Cricket Club, Harold "Dickie" Bird who became famous as a Test Umpire, had trials for Yorkshire together with Geoffrey Boycott. Parkonson once kept Boycott out of the Barnsley Cricket Club team by scoring a century and 50 in two successive matches.

During his national service, he was commissioned and became at the time the youngest Captain in the British army.

He started his career as a local journalist before joining the BBC and, of course, becoming one of the most famous interviewers of all time.

Rest in Peace.