Parkinson's Sunday Supplement is a Sunday morning programme which was aired between 1996 and 2007 on BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2

BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...

 in the United Kingdom. It was presented by the journalist and broadcaster Michael Parkinson

Michael Parkinson

Sir Michael Parkinson, CBE is an English broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his interview programme, Parkinson, from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007.- Early life :...

. 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 shortly after the 11:00am 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

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 and big-band genres, including such artists as Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

, Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Jane Fitzgerald , also known as the "First Lady of Song" and "Lady Ella," was an American jazz and song vocalist...

, Sarah Vaughan

Sarah Vaughan

Sarah Lois Vaughan was an American jazz singer, described by Scott Yanow as having "one of the most wondrous voices of the 20th century."...

 and Joe Williams

Joe Williams (jazz singer)

Joe Williams was a well-known jazz vocalist, a baritone singing a mixture of blues, ballads, popular songs, and jazz standards.-Early life:...

. 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 wrapped up before handing over to the 1:00pm news bulletin. Guests for the newspaper review included Steve Richards from The New Statesman

The New Statesman

The New Statesman is an award-winning British sitcom of the late 1980s and early 1990s satirising the Conservative government of the time...

 and Michael Prescott from The Guardian

The Guardian

The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...

. Entertainment guests included Gillian Reynolds

Gillian Reynolds

Gillian Reynolds MBE, née Morton is a British radio critic, journalist and broadcaster. The daughter of market traders in Liverpool, she was educated at St Anne's College, Oxford University....

 from the Daily Telegraph and the BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4

BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

 journalist Quentin Cooper

Quentin Cooper

Quentin Cooper is a science journalist and current presenter of The Material World on Thursday afternoons and Connect on BBC Radio 4 less frequently on Wednesday nights...

.

Parkinnson won a Sony Radio Award 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 last edition of Parkinson's Sunday Supplement was aired in December 2007. His final guest was the actor Sir Ian McKellen

Ian McKellen

Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE is an English actor. He has received a Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, and five Emmy Award nominations. His work has spanned genres from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction...

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

Michael Ball (singer)

Michael Ashley Ball, born 27 June 1962) is a British actor, singer, and radio and TV presenter who is best known for the song "Love Changes Everything" and musical theatre roles such as Marius in Les Misérables, Alex in Aspects of Love, Caractacus Potts in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Edna Turnblad...

 titled Michael Ball's Sunday Brunch.

External links

• Parkinson's Sunday Supplement at BBC Online