The series finished in 1982 and was replaced as the BBC's prime time talk show by Wogan (1982) for over a decade. However, it returned to the BBC in 1998.
The first series of the show, including interviews with John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Peter Ustinov, Benny Goodman, Spike Milligan and Orson Welles, was wiped on the orders of a BBC committee. All that survives of the first series is a monochrome telerecording of his interview with Shirley MacLaine.
Only once did Parkinson present a programme without wearing a tie, which was his interview with Richard Burton in 1974. Following the broadcast, BBC controller Paul Fox told him that if he did it again he would be fired. The Burton interview was recorded at 10am and the audience made up of staff from the BBC canteen. It was decided to do it this way as the producers feared if it was taped in the evening in front of a studio audience,as normal, the alcoholic Burton would probably have been drunk.
Parkinson said only two interviews were scripted. The first was with Frankie Howerd, the second was with Sacha Baron Cohen as Ali G.
Parkinson revealed that Barbra Streisand was never interviewed because she insisted on setting the questions and that the interview would have to take place in America.
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