By Duncan Eaton

He is the former chat show king who ruled over the Saturday night TV waves and brought Hollywood mega stars to our front rooms.

Now Sir Michael Parkinson is heading to Hampshire and the legendary interviewer will be the one answering the questions when he appears at Eastleigh’s Concorde Club on September 12.

Tickets have now gone on sale and to sign up one of the nation’s most famous TV faces is a huge coup for the Stoneham Lane club which this year celebrates its 60 th anniversary.

The Concorde’s Jamie Mathieson says: “We are delighted to welcome the King of Chat Show Sir Michael Parkinson to The Concorde on September 12 where the audience will hear his life story and he will reminisce the great stories through his wonderful long career. With his love of jazz music this will be a night to remember”

Parky, as he is affectionately known, has added Eastleigh to his exclusive nationwide tour.

Watched by millions, his iconic late TV show played host to a galaxy of stars from Billy Connolly and Peter Sellers to Les Dawson and Muhammad Ali.

Now the 82 year-old TV knight is taking his own fascinating life story on the road. An Evening with Sir Michael Parkinson will celebrate the life and career of a man who has interviewed more than 2000 of the most important cultural figures of the 20th and 21st centuries.

In conversation with his son Mike, the audience will be shown highlights from the Parkinson archive which will track his amazing journey from a pit village in Yorkshire to the top of those famous stairs.

Parky will relive the best moments from shows that for many defined their Saturday nights.

The Concorde, which has become an international jazz mecca, is a fitting setting for the chat show host who is a lifelong jazz fan.

He has promoted the careers of jazz musicians who have become household names like Jamie Cullum.

Sir Michael discovered jazz when he was in his teens thanks to American Forces Network radio, inspiring him and a friend to play jazz records on a bandstand in his home town of Barnsley.

His passion for cricket nearly steered him away from journalism and broadcasting. He had trials for Yorkshire along with Geoffrey Boycott.

And Parky once kept Boycott, who went on to bat for England, out of the Barnsley Cricket Club team by scoring a century and 50 in two successive matches.

A miner’s son, Sir Michael decided to carve out a career in the field of journalism, starting on local newspapers and later moving to Fleet Street.

His distinctive Yorkshire accent became part of his star appeal and his passport to tele stardom.

During the sixties he moved into television, working on current affairs programmes for the BBC and Manchester based Granada Televsion.

He was one of the original TV-am line up in 1983. His long running television talk show, Parkinson ran from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007.

(BLOB) For more details of An Evening With Sir Michael Parkinson ring 02380613989 or visit www.theconcordeclub.com