This special ‘Friday Night Is Music Night’ from the London Palladium, follows Sir Michael ‘s love affair with music. It charts the career of the Barnsley lad who loved cricket and the movies. Who fell in love with Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire as they danced, thirty feet high, across the screen of the local Rex. Who found jazz through the records of Louis Armstrong, and developed an abiding love of music through Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. We'll follow Sir Michael through the pioneering days of Granada TV in the sixties. Hear how he developed his journalistic skills to the needs of television, and how his love of music led to it becoming an integral part of his famous TV talk show.
In the concert we’ll hear American song book classics, by the likes of Cole Porter, George Gershwin and Jerome Kern. Admire the arrangements of the greats, like Nelson Riddle and Billy May and hear what it's like to sit opposite Hollywood and music stars like Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby and John Lennon. We'll also follow Sir Michaels’ remarkable success as an accidental Artists & Repertoire man. Michael Buble, Clare Teal, Jamie Cullum and Diana Krall are just a handful of the ‘next generation’ of jazz artists that Michael introduced to the public via Parkinson's Sunday Supplement on Radio 2. With star guest vocalists, Joe Stilgoe, Alison Jiear, Gwyn Jay Allen and Hailey Tuck, together with the sixty piece Â鶹ԼÅÄ Concert Orchestra, and the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Big Band conducted by Mike Dixon this will be an evening to remember. This is a chance to meet the legend who talked to legends! Presented by Mike Parkinson and Sir Michael Parkinson.
