Sir Geoffrey Boycott brands Michael Parkinson the 'soul of Yorkshire' in touching tribute
Sir Geoffrey Boycott has paid tribute to Sir Michael Parkinson
GB NEWS/PA
Iconic interviewer and broadcaster Sir Michael Parkinson died following a "brief illness", it was announced on Thursday.
A number of famous faces, friends, colleagues, and fans have paid tribute following the announcement, including cricketing icon Sir Geoffrey Boycott.
Boycott joined Tom Harwood and Ellie Costello on Thursday's Britain's Newsroom to share his thoughts on his friend's passing.
Reminiscing, Boycott said: "I met him at Barnsley Cricket Club when I was 15 years of age and he was a pretty good player. “Michael went onto better things, he went on to writing.
"His writing was stories about Yorkshire – about Barnsley Cricket Club, about Yorkshire Cricket Club, and about the people in the mining community.
“Most of the stories came from his father and Michael was clever enough to embellish them with great humour," Boycott continued.
Sir Geoffrey Boycott spoke to Ellie Costello and Tom Harwood on GB News
GB NEWS
The cricketer added: “He then went onto TV and he was the best chat show host because he listened to people. He not only asked questions but he listened to them and he actually liked them.
“In fact, he didn’t want them on his show unless he wanted to have them."
Touching on Parkinson's love for his birth county, Boycott went on: “He never lost his Yorkshire roots.
"Michael was Yorkshire in every way and he was the soul of Yorkshire. He understood how we think, how we talk and that’s why he was able to write about Yorkshire people like me."
While Parkinson was best known for his talents on-screen, Boycott branded him “a good cricketer”.
“I used to stay with him on the Saturday nights of a Lords test match because, in the early days, we had a rest day on Sunday," he told Harwood and Costello.
“And I seemed to be the only northerner playing and so the lads in the team who lived in Kent, Surrey, Middlesex, Sussex, all went home.
"I would be on my own, so he came to the cricket on a Saturday with Mary [his wife], then he would take me home for dinner.
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Sir Michael Parkinson died at the age of 88
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“Sunday mornings, we’d go cricket coaching in the fields with his kids.
“He was just a lovely man. He loved cricket, he loved laughter - he would laugh about himself with the emu.
“He never lost his humour, his warmth, his Yorkshire in him that made him great," Boycott concluded.