MICHAEL Parkinson's long list of stellar interviewees includes Muhammad Ali, John Wayne, Orson Welles, Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Stewart and John Lennon.

He has provided viewers with countless classic television moments, from fighting with Rod Hull's Emu and flirting with Miss Piggy to provoking Woody Allen into accusing him of having a morbid curiosity about his personal life and enduring a monosyllabic Meg Ryan.

So who was his favourite all-time guest?

"Muhammad Ali," he says simply.

"He was unique, in whatever way you look at him he was and is an extraordinary man. When I interviewed him he was the most famous person in the world and I was fortunate that my career coincided with that time in his life and I am certain we will never see the like of him again," he said.

What do you think of Parky's career? Who was your favourite Parky guest? Post your comments below or click here to email your memories of the king of the chat shows.

"Nelson Mandela also - an extra special human being. They both possess something so special, there is an aura about them. I'm certain if you were in a room and they walked in behind you you would sense the sheer force of their presence."

Parky's other favoured interviewees are from a distant roll-call of greats embracing Orson Welles, James Cagney, Fred Astaire, Peter Sellers and James Stewart.

"At the time I persuaded Orson Welles to come onto the show he was a giant. Once he had appeared everyone wanted to come on, agents wanted their clients on my show because Orson Welles had been on, such was his fame and his importance," he said.

Of James Stewart and other greats he says: "To talk to people who had flown missions over Germany as well as played Hamlet was to deal with a different creature. Those greats had a life other than acting, they were more rounded human beings.

"Because they had lived lives that were not bounded by their acting career, there was a hinterland that was worth exploring, a background, a richness.

"Today, it's different. Not worse, just different. There are the big stars but in the main they don't have the texture. They didn't go through a war. And thank God for that."

He says over more than 600 shows he has always sought guests who, besides being well known, had some sort of story to relate. He then saw his job as "allowing them to tell it".

"You have to do your research and then to be an adept interviewer, you have to be a good listener. It's no good having a fixed set of questions - they can help, but if a guest suddenly starts to tell an interesting tale or reveal an unknown facet of their life you shouldn't interrupt, you should sit back and just enjoy as hopefully the audience is doing."

Parky's skill has been in putting guests at ease, such as when he coaxed Dame Judi Dench to talk about the death of her husband, and Mo Mowlam to speak about her father's alcoholism.

Sir Paul McCartney appeared on the show shortly after the death of his wife Linda and performed an acoustic version of the Beatles song Yesterday.
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