Michael Parkinson: Social media has made it tougher to host chat shows.

Michael Parkinson: Social media has made it tougher to host chat shows.

TV icon Sir Michael Parkinson believes it is tougher to host a chat show these days, because viewers know so much about the stars being interviewed due to the rise of social media.

Sir Michael Parkinson isn't sure what he would ask his celebrity chat show guests nowadays, because people know so much about stars due to social media.

The 86-year-old TV icon interviewed numerous stars on his talk show 'Parkinson' over three runs from 1971 to 2007, but he believes it would be "more difficult" to front such a programme these days because there is so much information around about celebrities.

He said: "My job would be very different [now].

"There's social media, so I don't know what you would do, what the questions would be.

"People know anything there is to know about everybody else, and what they didn't want to know as well.

"So, it is a more difficult time now.

"I had the best of it, in terms of the guests I could choose from, the older ones and the newer ones, and also the kind of television that was being shown in those days.

"It was bliss."

The TV presenter still counts Sir Billy Connolly as one of his favourite guests, and he praised the comedian as "a natural funny man".

Speaking on 'Lorraine', he added: "Billy is a genius. He is the funniest man I ever met.

"He's a natural funny man, and an intelligent man.

"I tried very hard to get it out of him about the abuse he'd had as a child.

"In the end he wrote a book about it.

"There was a mystery about Billy, which I could only sense and then grew to understand.

"It made him even more interesting as a human being.

"He is a fascinating man.

"I've interviewed some wonderful comedians, some of the best, and he was the best by far."