UK talkshow doyen Michael Parkinson died on August 16. He was 88. TONY MAGEE recalls a Canberra story involving an unexpected early morning visit from “Parky”. 

IN 1988, Michael Parkinson made one of many trips to Australia. 

I have it on very good authority from a Canberra-based senior quarantine officer (at the time), that the following story is true.

Having departed Heathrow en route to Tullamarine, the Qantas Boeing 747 Parky was aboard, along with 300 other passengers, suddenly had to make an emergency landing at Canberra.

There was a fuel problem.

It was 1am, but the pilots were able to make contact with the RAAF Base at Fairbairn and permission was immediately granted to land, their advice also being that a plane of that size had never landed at Fairbairn, or Canberra domestic before – the runways were considered too short and also not wide enough.

But it was an emergency, so down they came.

On touch-down, the Boeing’s wheels crushed all the landing lights for the entire length of the runway, the plane coming to a halt with just three metres of runway to spare.

Passengers had to remain seated on the plane waiting for quarantine officials to arrive and process them on disembarking.

Parkinson was the first passenger off. An Australian Customs official, also involved in the debacle, spotted Parky on the tarmac, rushed over and screamed with excitement at the top of his voice: “Oh my goodness – I can’t believe it! It’s really you! David Frost! Can I have your autograph?”

Parkinson reacted stunned at first, while most others around him burst out laughing as Parky scribbled something down on the man’s notebook.

Conversation amongst the passengers then turned to an amusing: “I wonder if he signed ‘Parkinson’ or ‘Frost’?”

No-one ever found out. Many passengers asked him, but he politely and humorously declined, saying: “That has to remain something that David Frost and I will have a good laugh about over a drink sometime.”

Parkinson’s career in Australia often ran in parallel to his work in the UK, and his series “Parkinson in Australia” was shown on the ABC from 1979 to 1982. He later recorded – with Sir David Frost – “Frost over Parkinson” and “Parkinson: The Frost Interviews” – for Network Nine.

Parkinson said he “truly fell in love with Australia” when he watched the then prime minister Paul Keating put his arm around the Queen in 1992.

“Those who believed it was a terrible lapse of protocol, that Mr Keating should be sent to the Tower and tried for treason, completely missed the point,” he said.

“Mr Keating wasn’t being disloyal; he was merely reaching out in a friendly gesture, as one human being to another.”

Sir Michael Parkinson: 1935 – 2023.