[10] Parkinson was one of the original "Famous Five" line-up of TV-am's Good Morning, Britain in 1983, with Angela Rippon, Anna Ford, David Frost and Robert Kee.

[12] He also took over as host of Thames Television's Give Us a Clue from Michael Aspel from 1984,[13] while in 1985, he stood in for Barry Norman as presenter of Film 85.

[15] On Halloween 1992, Parkinson appeared as himself in the television drama Ghostwatch as the studio link during a fictional, apparently live, paranormal investigation.

[13] He again appeared as himself in Richard Curtis's 2003 romantic comedy film, Love Actually, interviewing the character Billy Mack, played by Bill Nighy.

[18] In October 2003, Parkinson had a controversial interview with Meg Ryan while she was in the UK to promote In the Cut, which he called his most difficult television moment.

[21] On 24 November 2007, during recording of the final regular edition of his ITV chat show, broadcast on 16 December, Parkinson fought back tears as he was given an ovation.

[23] Parkinson was a flagship of the BBC's prime-time schedule, attracting top names before the chat show circuit was part of the promotional mill.

[25] He was not afraid to allow an interviewee time to be themself, sometimes, as with Fred Astaire, Orson Welles, Alec Guinness, Paul McCartney, Muhammad Ali, George Michael, Madonna, John Cleese and Mel Gibson, devoting an entire programme to a guest who was considered especially noteworthy.

[32] After six shows, he was criticised by the BBC Board of Management for "a Yorkshire bias in the choice of castaways" despite the fact that only one of his guests was born in the county.

[34] Between 1996 and 2007, he presented a morning show on BBC Radio 2 called Parkinson's Sunday Supplement; it featured newspaper and entertainment summaries with the help of journalists and a lengthy interview with a media personality.

[37] Parkinson's first article for The Sunday Times Colour Section, "Living in a Museum" (about the Suffolk village of Lavenham), appeared on 8 July 1962.

[39] These Sunday Times pieces and his articles for Punch magazine later formed the basis for two books, Cricket Mad and Football Daft.

[40] In the 1980s, Parkinson wrote a series of children's books called The Woofits about a family of anthropomorphic dog-like creatures in the fictional Yorkshire coal-mining village of Grimeworth.

[43] In April 2009, Parkinson wrote about the recently deceased Jade Goody in the Radio Times and described her as "barely educated, ignorant and puerile", adding: "When we clear the media smokescreen from around her death, what we're left with is a woman who came to represent all that's paltry and wretched about Britain today.

[49] In 2005, Parkinson appeared with comedian Peter Kay on the music video of the re-released "Is This the Way to Amarillo" for Comic Relief, which became a number one single.

[53] After finishing his talk show, Parkinson appeared in commercials for SunLife Guaranteed Over 50 Plan life insurance, stating that he liked "its no-nonsense approach to business".

"[58] On 11 October 2010, Parkinson appeared on Richard Bacon's Radio 5 Live show, and was particularly critical of comedian and actor Russell Brand, saying: "I don't see the point of him.

"[59] In 2013, Parkinson again criticised the course British television had taken, comparing series such as The One Show unfavourably with the broadcasting of the recently deceased Alan Whicker and David Frost, as well as stating the "cult of youth" had "distorted the standards".

Parkinson spoke fondly of the time when "producers were unencumbered by such irksome obstacles as compliance, health and safety and frustrating commissioning procedures".

[61] In August 2014, Parkinson was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian expressing their hope that Scotland would vote to remain part of the United Kingdom in September's referendum on that issue.

[69] In an interview with Irish broadcaster Gay Byrne on the RTÉ religious programme The Meaning of Life, he stated that he was an agnostic atheist.

[79] He was invested as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Prince Charles in November 2000 for services to broadcasting, awarded in the 2000 Birthday Honours.

[80][81] Parkinson was made a Knight Bachelor in the 2008 New Year's Honours List;[82] he remarked that he was "not the type to get a knighthood" coming as he did "from Barnsley.