Parky's courting success

THERE'S no doubt that Michael Parkinson made his family proud. The son of a coal miner, he became a telly legend with a string of awards and his own talk show.

- MEG JORSH

But long before that, he left school at 15 for a role as a trainee reporter at the South Yorkshire Times. After a long day at work, he would often head home to regale his parents with tales from Barnsley Magistrates' Court.

"My grandparents were incredibly proud of him," his son Mike explains. "They never wanted him to follow my grandfather down the pit. So they would ask him to read out what he'd written that day and he'd read out his court reports.

"He would sometimes read out a report on someone my grandfather played cricket against!"

For those who have never spent time in one, a magistrates' court is the entry point to the court system. All criminal cases begin there, but the most serious are then referred to the crown court.

Those that remain can be decided by a panel of three magistrates one the Presiding Justice - or a District Judge, sitting without a jury. They can impose unlimited fines or up to 12 months in prison for a single offence.