Margaret Reilly was brought up as a strict Irish Catholic, one of 18 children, on a farm in Co. Mayo, Ireland. On the 18th of April 1942, Margaret married George Parker, a docker, and quickly fell pregnant with her first child, a son. Two years later and the family were extended further, this time with a daughter.
By the early spring of 1952 Margaret was heavily pregnant with her third child. The couple had settled in Bermondsey, London, where George worked on the lathe at a firm producing tin boxes. Now, with children John and Anne already of school age and Michael on the way, Margaret was, in every way, a committed wife and mother. It should be noted that show business was already in the blood of the Parker family - Margaret was herself an accomplished dancer and entertainer.

Michael began his schooling at St. Joseph's Primary. He was an active, energetic child, an enthusiastic member of the cubs and, later, the scouts. Growing up in the rough and tumble of the 1950s Michael learned to enjoy while he could the misadventures of childhood. It is a matter of record that life at the small family flat was uneasy. His father was gambling & drinking away their meagre income leaving his frantic mother to manage the family affairs. In heated arguments big brother John was protective of Anne and Michael and fights between him and his father were common place. Desperate times indeed.
When Michael was just 11 years old his father walked out, abandoning his family to their fate. They got on just fine.

Finishing his education at St Michael's Roman Catholic school at the age of 15, Michael found himself in the 'real world' with not a single qualification to his name. No matter. As Michael puts it, "I'd got a brain but I wasn't educated so I made sure I'd always ask how to do something. I was never too scared or too embarrassed to ask, that was my communication skill". In any event with Michael's single-minded ambition exams never came into the equation.

The real world was not kind to Michael. Like many others, before and since, he quickly found that childish dreams rarely sit well with the harsh reality of earning a living. Taking home his first wage packet of £3.50 his hopes of celebrity should have seemed futile, but not to Michael. Michael loved, and still loves, to make people laugh. No wage packet in the world could reward him for that so, as a young adult, Michael worked for a living and entertained because he wanted to. His dream was still alive.
That first job, as a hairdresser training under Ricci Burns, was never going to hold Michael for long. He had aspirations. It made no difference that the salon had numerous celebrities as clients, (including Lulu, no less). His mind was fixed. He was going to be a star.

If his mother was beginning to despair of her youngest as he crashed from job to job, she did not show it. She knew of his dream (everyone did) and was 100% behind him. Any way, he was young and fit and the work ethic in him was strong, she knew that her boy would be all right. Not one for standing idle, Michael took work wherever it was available. For a while he was even driving John Sainsbury around, yes, the John Sainsbury of the supermarket dynasty. But grocery held no fascination for Michael; show business was all he wanted. Perhaps, Michael reasoned, music could be his calling. After all, he had been following a local band and now they needed a keyboard player. Why not him? Why not indeed. So he'd never held a musical instrument in his life. Not a problem; he would learn and learn quickly. So what if he didn't own a keyboard; he would buy one! But he was flat broke…

Back at the high rise council flat Michael cleared his plate before broaching the subject. His mother was an excellent cook and he knew he could always rely on a good meal. But could she, would she, help him out? Of course she would! Margaret Parker knew show business and she knew that every hopeful youngster needs a start. She would need to take out a loan but, yes, Michael could have his keyboard.

Taking work as a taxi driver, Michael was able to make time for auditions, eventually auditioning for Trevor and Billie George in Devon. The Georges immediately took to Michael (although Michael later confided that he suspects he was merely cheaper than the other candidates were). What ever their motives Trevor and Billie George gave Michael regular work in the business he had always been so desperate to break in to. At last Michael felt justified - regular work, regular pay - Michael Parker was, at long last, if not a star, at least a highly regarded entertainer. The actors union, however, were a little less content. They already had a performer on their books with the same name and so it was Billie George who came up with the name 'Barrymore' after the American acting dynasty.

Michael's relationship with the George's was a strong one. As his management they found him plenty of billings and for his part he would help out where ever he could with any jobs that needed doing. Even as a fledgling star his desire to work meant he wasn't above shifting a few boxes. At this time the future looked good. As Michael Barrymore he was now known to thousands of theatregoers and a popular draw in any Variety Show. He would compere shows, all the while developing his own act. 'Unique' and 'Zany' were the two adjectives most commonly used to describe his very special brand of entertainment.

Back home, Mrs Parker proudly told her neighbours of her youngest son's exploits. Her, perfectly natural, confidence in Michael had never wavered and now she saw her boy happily realising his dream. It was some relief, too, for Michael for out of his regular wage he was able to send a little money back home. In fact, in later years, Michael was in a position to offer his beloved mother a way out of the Bermondsey flat. He would, he said, buy her a house - never mind the price - anywhere she chose. She chose to stay right where she was and stayed in her familiar surroundings, with friends around her that she had first known as a newly wed so many years before, right up to the day she died, in 2001.

Show biz was good for Michael and the early seventies saw him increasing in confidence as his act grew stronger. Not too confident, mind you. Saturday evening television featured the popular talent show 'New Faces' where hopefuls sang and danced their hearts out in front of the often viciously critical panel. No way was Michael going to expose himself to that. Never. Absolutely not. No harm in going to the auditions, though, thought Michael, just to support his good friend, Jack Lilley. Once there, of course, Michael threw caution to the wind and had a go himself earning a place on the show that would introduce him to millions. It was 1975; the viewers had never seen anyone quite like Michael Barrymore. What would they make of him?
The television audience loved Michael and he easily won the show, with even the famously cruel judges acknowledging his special talent and the television exposure turned out to be just what his career needed, indirectly bringing a six-month contract for a show in London's West End. It was here that Michael met Cheryl, one of the most powerful influences on his adult life. Working so far from the George's base in Torquay Michael allowed Cheryl to become his manager and the two quickly became inseparable. They were married the following year.

Michael's triumph on New Faces did not, however, mean that he could now rest on his laurels (that was never his style, anyway).
It was clear to him that if he were to continue his climb to the top he would need to gain the attention of the television executives - the money men - men who would see him as financially viable. Or not. They would not be impressed just because a star was new or original or good. They needed new and original and brilliant. Michael was all three, he just needed to be seen, and the best place to do that was in the very studios that would, years later record some of his finest moments.
In his role as 'warm up man' it was his job to entertain studio audiences during breaks in the recording of television shows. He was meant to be a distraction, to stop the crowd getting fidgety, nothing more.
Michael's ulterior motive and natural showmanship meant that, often, the lasting memory of people at those recordings was of him, not of the stars they had originally come to see. This was a high-risk strategy that could easily have backfired spectacularly.

While his television career was beginning to slowly gather momentum Michael kept up his cabaret work and outside interests, including a disastrous venture into the news agency business. In March 1976 he made his professional television debut on 'Now Who Do You Do' and soon was appearing on all the popular variety shows of the time with shows like 'Blankety Blank' (1977) increasing Michael's exposure to the point that he truly was a household name. Even so, it wasn't until 1981 that Michael got what is now widely regarded as his 'big break', a regular spot on 'Russ Abbotts Madhouse'.

At long last the television producers began to see the enormous potential in Michael, well, David Clark of Thames Television did, at least. 'The Michael Barrymore Show' in 1983 finally put Michael's name at the very top of the bill. As the opening music played and the title flashed Michael's name onto millions of TV screens, few could deny that he had made it - he was undeniably a star. But, then again, to everyone who knew him, he'd been a star all along. Now he was famous...

Could it be really be true? After all he had been through, had the dream, born so long ago, now be reality? Well, yes and no. The truth is that Michael had laid the foundations on which he would build a career that surpassed anything he could have imagined as a starstruck child, award-winning shows would from now on follow one another almost effortlessly. Although, as Michael knows better than anyone does, if you work hard enough, you can make anything look easy.