It was also vital that the guests themselves were interesting, amusing or even intellectual to take the show into another dimension, most notably with scientist Jacob Bronowski, who had the gift of communicating ideas to the most humble and making them universally understandable despite his extraordinary depth of knowledge. At his peak, Parkinson was a remarkably astute and respectful interviewer, allowing such personalities to merely do their thing, interjecting occasionally with questions or soundbites that were mostly perfectly judged and kept interest going. Parkinson was perhaps fortunate that he had a wealth of talent to choose from in this period, most notably film stars from 1930's/1940's Classical Hollywood who were still very much alive and active in films, from Bette Davis to James Stewart, Henry Fonda to John Wayne, Bob Hope to Bing Crosby among scores of others, but also British acting and comic talent, from distinguished classical actors to the most popular of comedians, from Dame Edith Evans to Peter O'Toole to Morecambe and Wise to Peter Sellers.
#Jbridge review trial
The first series was apparently a trial run, but it went so well that it continued for the next decade and became an integral part of British TV broadcasting in the 1970's. Michael Parkinson started his career in local newspaper journalism based in his native Yorkshire, progressing to regional TV reporting for Granada TV in the 60's, before being offered a chat show by the BBC in the early 70's.