In 1965, he began writing a
weekly sports column for The Sunday Times.
In 1975, he also published Best - An Intimate Biography about George Best
and A-Z of Soccer.
Other publications include The Woofits (1980), Parkinson's Lore (1981),
The Best of Parkinson (1982), Sporting Lives (1992), Sporting Profiles
(1995), Parkinson on Golf (1999), and Parkinson on Football (2001).
In 1969, he took over the presentation
of Granada's Cinema series and published A Pictorial History of Westerns,
his favorite film genre.
In 1971, he compered a regular afternoon show, Teabreak, for Thames Television.
At one stage he was joined by his wife Mary, who later presented the programme
in her own right.
Michael presented his own BBC
talk show entitled Parkinson for 11 years until 1982.
Essential viewing for millions each week, it ran to 361 editions and featured
nearly a thousand of the world's most famous people.
Michael returned to the BBC during the summer of 1995 to present a highly
acclaimed series of late night tributes to some of the all-time greats
of the entertainment world in Parkinson: The Interviews.
From 1995 to 1999 he hosted the very popular Going For A Song (BBC ONE).
In 1996, Michael launched a
Sunday morning show - Parkinson's Sunday Supplement - on Radio 2 in which
he plays his favourite music and talks to his special guests.
Following the enormous popularity
of the series featuring past interviews, Parkinson returned to BBC ONE
in January 1998.
Once again the series was a huge success and featured guests such as Sir
Anthony Hopkins, Sir Elton John, Billy Connolly and Ewan McGregor.
Another highly acclaimed series followed in January 1999, kicking off
with a George Michael special.
In July 1999 Michael was the
proud recipient of an honorary doctorate from Lincolnshire and Humberside
University and later that year won the National Television Awards' Best
Chat Show for Parkinson for the second time.
December brought the eagerly
awaited return of another series of Parkinson, starting with a very special
interview with Sir Paul McCartney.
In March 2000 Michael was honoured
by the Media Society and received its annual award for his outstanding
contribution to the media.
In June of 2000, Michael was delighted and proud to be included in the
Queen's Birthday Honours List and was awarded a CBE.
September of the same year saw another series of Parkinson which the following
month won the National Television Award for Most Popular Talk Show.
In September 2001, the sixth series of Parkinson since its return enjoyed
a Saturday night prime time slot receiving excellent viewing figures.
Michael and wife, Mary, are
extremely keen golfers. Another hobby is cricket and every year Michael
hosts a Celebrity XI Charity Cricket Match at Bray and Maidenhead cricket
ground.
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