This Morning: Sir Michael Parkinson dies aged 88
Dickie Bird joined Naga Munchetty and Charlie Stayt on BBC Breakfast to speak about his friendship with the late Sir Michael Parkinson.
After sharing memories of his friendship, Dickie broke down in tears as he sobbed there will “never be another Parky”.
He cried: “I shall miss him and I have a lump in my throat. We were the closest of friends and I mean that in all sincerity.
“There will never be another Parky, never. He will always be there for me and I shall miss him.”
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Dickie explained he had spoken to his friend just one day before he died where he urged the presenter to “keep going”.
Dickie recalled: “We had a long chat on Tuesday morning and he said to me ‘keep going mate’.
“And I said the same to him and we had a bit of a chat. His voice wasn’t as strong as I was used to, I thought.
“Then, he said, ‘Dickie I don’t know how much we have longer.’ I said, ‘Don’t talk like that, keep going.’
“We said our goodbyes, we both said goodbye to each other. I was overwhelmed as I’m getting now.
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“He was so close to me and he died the next day.”
Recalling the last time he saw Sir Michael in person, Dickie said: “He came all the way from Bray where he lives to share my birthday party with me.
“He said ‘If I’ve got to walk from Bray to Leeds, I’ll walk it.’ He came all the way just for me, that’s true friendship.”
In the interview, Dickie sent his condolences to Sir Michael’s wife Mary, and his son at “these difficult times”.
“If I had any problems or anything on my mind, he used to say to me, ‘You ring me,’ and I used to ring him and have a lot of conversations with him on the phone and we’d put the world to rights,” Dickie continued.
“I also remember when I wrote my autobiography in 1996, there was all the publishers all over the world who wanted to do my book.
“So I rang Parky up and said, ‘What do you think mate?’ and he said, ‘I’ve got the publisher for you. My publishers will do your book,’ which they did.
“It was a tremendous success and it was all down to Parky. That’s friendship and you can’t buy that.
“If I had any problems, we’d call each other up and we’d end up talking about fishing.”
BBC Breakfast airs daily on BBC One from 6am.
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