The chat show can be a brilliant form of entertainment. It can also be a tedious waste of time. Even Graham Norton has been sinking beneath the weight of the self promotion he has to allow his guests in recent weeks.

Usually he can rescue a few moments with his wit and charm but that didn’t happen during the recent lack lustre programme dedicated to the James Bond film Spectre which was not helped by a rendition of Writing’s On The Wall, possibly the worst 007 theme song ever. Bring back Shirley Bassey. Or anybody.

Sienna Miller and Bradley Cooper talked up their latest film Burn which, according to reviews, needs all the help it can get, and Kate Winslet and Michael Fassbender appeared as a mutual admiration society.

Of course, if all the plugs were removed the show business talent queuing up to sit on the sofa would drain away. That’s the whole purpose of chat shows: free publicity.

It’s one of the reasons Paul O’Grady turned down another series – that and because he often couldn’t stand the guests.

“Every question had to go through the lawyers,” he said. “It was just another plug for someone’s book or film. I saw some dross but I was too polite to say ‘how you’ve got the nerve to publish this is beyond me’.”

It makes you yearn for the days of the Michael Parkinson interviews, even though most of his guests were also selling something.

“There was just as much plugging in the 70s as at any time later,” he has said. “To suggest otherwise is to misunderstand the reason people come on talk shows.”

Michael Parkinson

The difference was that Parkinson got the plug in, got his guests talking and sat back and listened. He was so good he had major stars requesting interviews without anything to plug and devoted several programmes to one guest only.

Peter Ustinov, Bing Crosby, Muhammed Ali, Bob Hope, Robert Mitchum, James Cagney, John Lennon, Sean Connery, Oliver Reed, Mickey Rooney and Harold Wilson were a few of the more than 2,000 world famous people he interviewed.

“Sinatra was the one that got away,” he said. “Otherwise, I’ve met everyone I have ever wanted to meet.”

He filmed his face-to-face with Richard Burton during the afternoon in case the actor was drunk by evening if allowed access to alcohol. The audience was gathered at short notice and included BBC canteen staff still in kitchen whites.

Burton later confessed that as he walked on set he thought the “men in white coats” had come finally for him.

Sadly, we no longer have anyone of the talent of Parkinson and budgets these days dictate the formula and the guests, even for Graham Norton.

He doesn’t have the time or scope for in-depth interviews. Some stars - usually British - are still good value, funny and self deprecating. Unfortunately, there is a minority who take themselves too seriously and don’t seem to understand they are there to entertain as well as self-promote.