Dame has admitted she actually felt ‘sorry’ for Sir Michael Parkinson after their tense interview in 1975.
Their conversation went down in television history after the late broadcaster, who , repeatedly referenced the then-30-year-old star’s ‘physical attributes’.
He went onto ask her if her ‘equipment’ distracted audiences and even if serious actresses could have ‘big bosoms’, which led to her .
Dame Helen, now 78, called him a ‘sexist old fart’ for the comments, and in 2019 she claimed she got the brunt of the backlash for the interview by being ‘argumentative’.
However, in the new issue of Radio Times she has given a much more nuanced reaction to the TV appearance, and insisted ‘in lots of ways he was right’ with what he said.
‘I didn’t feel sorry for Parky, but then in a way I did because in lots of ways he was right,’ she said. ‘My physicality did get in the way of me being taken seriously as a classical actress.’
She also acknowledged that ‘times change’, adding: ‘Yes, yes they really do. And fast. And we can only kick down the patriarchy one brick at a time.’
And she pointed to the way Sir Michael – who never apologised to her for the interview – invited Sir Elton John onto his programme after he was ‘outed in a bad way’ by the media.
She revealed: ‘Parky invited Elton on to his show so that they could talk about it properly. He held out a hand and helped Elton John at a very important moment. So I don’t want to diss Parky.’
Back in 2019, Dame Helen told Flaunt magazine that Sir Michael ‘never saw’ why the interview got such a bad reputation over the years.
‘He did blow it that once, because, you know, he didn’t know any different,’ she said at the time. ‘I mentioned it to him again years later and he never saw what was wrong with it. He never could quite grasp it.’
The same year, and while he admitted the interview was ’embarrassing’ despite being ‘of its time’, he added: ‘Well, maybe [the comments were sexist]. But nobody got hurt, nobody died.’
