He began his career as a reporter for local newspapers in Yorkshire before moving to London to work for BBC Radio Newsreel and TV News.

Parkin took over as the main presenter of ITN's First Report lunchtime current affairs programme and was a regular newsreader on News at One from 1978 to 1987.

[2] Parkin was educated at Hemsworth Grammar School in Yorkshire,[3] and got his start in journalism by writing a regular gossip column for the local paper.

[5][6] During his apprenticeship, Parkin worked at the weekly Yorkshire Observer newspaper as a reporter and feature writer,[7] before moving on to the Bradford Telegraph & Argus from 1951 to 1954.

[3] He spent a long time in Dallas covering the trial of Jack Ruby, who shot Kennedy's assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

[4] In 1965, Parkin returned to the United Kingdom from Washington and began working as a reporter for the BBC's current affairs programme Panorama.

[5][8] His time at Panorama was cut short by a car accident in Ireland the following year (while reporting on the 1966 Irish presidential election), which left him with a permanent limp in his right leg and severe facial injuries that took six months to heal.

[15] He took early retirement from ITN in July 1987 after ITV moved the News at One bulletin up by half an hour in an attempt to attract more viewers.

[2][18] He was a member of the Welwyn Film Record Society, the Marylebone Cricket Club, the Lord's Taverners and was president of both the Herts Fly Dressers' Guild and The Lytton Players Stevenage.