''Parkinson's Sunday Supplement'' was the incarnation of the Sunday morning programme on

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...

, between 31 March 1996 and 2 December 2007. It was presented by the journalist and broadcaster

Michael Parkinson Sir Michael Parkinson (28 March 1935 – 16 August 2023) was an English television presenter, broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his television talk show '' Parkinson'' from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007, as well as other ta ...

. The programme featured newspaper reviews and entertainment summaries with the help of journalists and a lengthy interview with a media personality.

Show format

The programme began after the 11:00 news and was introduced by Parkinson, who would outline some of the features that would be on that morning's show. These would usually be a review of the Sunday papers with a guest; a round-up of the week's entertainment news in the world of film, radio, television, music and the arts, also with a guest reviewer; and after the midday news, an interview with a media personality from the worlds of entertainment, arts, sport and music. Between these features Parkinson would play what he termed "the very best in music" from the

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

and

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...

genres, including such artists as

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April25, 1917June15, 1996) was an American singer, songwriter and composer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phra ...

Sarah Vaughan Sarah Lois Vaughan (, March 27, 1924 – April 3, 1990) was an American jazz singer and pianist. Nicknamed "Sassy" and "List of nicknames of jazz musicians, The Divine One", she won two Grammy Awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, ...

and Joe Williams. After his guest interview Parkinson would often review new album releases in the jazz and big band genres, playing a selection of tracks. The show was then concluded before handing over to the 13:00 news bulletin. Guests for the newspaper review included Steve Richards from the ''

New Statesman ''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...

'' and Michael Prescott from ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

''. Entertainment guests included

Gillian Reynolds Gillian Reynolds (née Morton; born 15 November 1935) is an English radio critic. After writing for ''The Guardian'' from 1967 to 1974, she was the radio critic for ''The Daily Telegraph'' for over 42 years, from 1975 to 2018. She then continued ...

from ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' and the

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

journalist

Quentin Cooper Quentin Cooper (born 1961, Grimsby) is a science journalist and facilitator, who presented BBC Radio 4's ''Material World (radio programme), Material World'' from 2000 to 2013. He speaks at science festivals and lectures, and works regularly w ...

. Parkinson won a

Sony Radio Award The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...

for the programme in 1998. In October 2007, a few months after announcing his retirement from his television series, Parkinson said his radio show would also end. The final edition of ''Parkinson's Sunday Supplement'' was aired on 2 December 2007. His final guest was the actor Sir

Ian McKellen Sir Ian Murray McKellen (born 25 May 1939) is an English actor. He has played roles on the screen and stage in genres ranging from Shakespearean dramas and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. He is regarded as a British cu ...

. It was replaced in early 2008 by a show presented by

Michael Ball Michael Ashley Ball (born 27 June 1962) is an English singer, presenter and actor. In 1985, he made his West End debut as Marius Pontmercy in the original production of ''Les Misérables''. In 1989, he reached number two in the UK Singles C ...

titled ''Michael Ball's Sunday Brunch''.

References

External links

* {{BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 programmes 1996 radio programme debuts 2007 radio programme endings