Thank AI, which has learned to speak and ask questions like Parky and is now interviewing real-life guests – including gardening expert Monty Don and Strictly winner Chris McCausland – on a podcast called Virtually Parkinson.
The first of the Virtually Parkinson podcasts, where AI Parkinson interviews the US singer-songwriter Jason Derulo, is an embarrassment.
If my sons set out to make a living out of my talent after I died, I would be so horrified I would come back, haunt them and make their lives a misery.
The interviewee may be real, but without any human reaction to what they say – a slight grimace, a loaded pause – the interchange sounds rehearsed, dull and barely human.
Working-class grammar school kids from Barnsley, surprisingly given titles – he became a knight and I a dame – we were both drawn to journalism and knew instinctively how to carry out a great interview.
