Nobbut Laiking, by Ross Brewster
It’s difficult to imagine any other deceased celebrity commanding the front pages and the news bulletins like Parky did last week.
And I suppose the very familiarity with which we used the term Parky to describe Sir Michael Parkinson was evidence of the cosy role he played in entertaining the public over many years.
Parkinson was best known for his chat shows on television. He reckoned to have interviewed more than 1,200 people in his career as broadcaster and journalist.
But here’s the thing. I never really liked his shows. I found some of his chat crass, like the infamously insulting “equipment” comment when he interviewed the then rising star Helen Mirren. But then I don’t like chat shows per se, which probably explains why Parkinson never really cut it for me. I found his early sports writing infinitely preferable, whether it was witty, intelligent material for the Sunday papers or his books about Yorkshire sporting life.
Parkinson helped to create the legend that was Syd ‘Skinner’ Normanton, a tough tackling Barnsley wing half. It was said of Normanton, a gentleman in civvy life, that he transformed into a fearsome opponent on the football pitch.
Parkinson once wrote of Normanton, parents having difficulty getting children to sleep would warn them, if they did not nod off “Skinner would come for them”.
Sir Michael’s other great sporting interest was cricket. He even kept Geoffrey Boycott out of the Barnsley team. However when it became clear his future did not lie in opening the innings for Yorkshire, that’s when he began a new career in journalism.
In the 1970s, 80s and up to the Millennium, TV chat shows were the staple diet of TV watchers. Russell Harty, Wogan, David Frost, Simon Dee and Parkinson. These were the big names. We had a surfeit of them.
I always maintain the best of the bunch was John Freeman, whose Face To Face interviews were more interrogation than friendly chat. He once reduced Gilbert Harding, a well-known panel show guest in the sixties, to tears. The Spanish Inquisition had nothing on Freeman whose programmes were made all the more dramatic by the two facing chairs and blacked out background. It’s a long time ago and I wonder how many remember John Freeman now?
These days I know Graham Norton has a popular show, but as for other chat hosts, the genre leaves me cold. Just as, I’m afraid to say amid the outpouring of public grief, so did Parky.
Human error data leaks don’t inspire confidence in AI
“Human error.” There’s been a lot of that lately.
Disappearing fast are the days when we could count on privacy in our everyday lives. Our information is out there, whether we like it or not, and for some the outcome is a lot more worrying and even dangerous than a company simply getting hold of our data to ply us with advertising.
We never gave privacy a second thought until everything became computerised. Now that four letter word, data, plays a huge role in every aspect of life.
What is going on? Why so many leaks? If it’s simply human error, as the recent breach of data reported by Cumbria police suggests, exactly who has their fingers on the keyboard when it comes to confusing “send” with “save?”
A friend of mine, more conversant with modern technology, told me it’s probably nothing more sinister than junior staff being given responsibilities for keeping our data safe and secure.
But there is a heck of a difference between firms selling books or groceries knowing one’s preferences and the situation that emerged in Northern Ireland last week whereby sensitive data about officers and staff was accidentally published on a website and left there for a number of hours where it could be seen by people who mean harm.
It’s when lives are at stake you realise how easily data can be compromised and how little we should trust it. Most of us have no dark secrets. Loss of data is an inconvenience, nothing worse. But imagine what it could be like when artificial intelligence is mixed with a badly programmed computer and some leaky data.
There are benefits as well as weaknesses in the system. But as they say, a computer is only as good as the information it’s fed. My business is your business and everyone’s business in this modern world.
As a reporter, I often used to interview people, perfectly charming, friendly folk, who described themselves as “very private”. They were not being stand-offish, but they preferred the relative anonymity of keeping well away from public life to be with their family. I don’t suppose many people can say that these days. Unlike Michael Caine’s famous “not a lot of people know that” saying, a lot of people potentially do know it or, if they have wicked intent, can easily locate it online.
Technology is both friend and foe and, as AI plays an increasing role, it’s vital for public trust that much greater care is afforded to how our data is gathered and stored. Recent leaks don’t inspire confidence.
