Michael Parkinson has hit out at claims made that he blubbed and cried during the filming of his last ever ITV chat show.

“I’m a very happy bunny, I cannot wait to jack it all in,” he commented. “It’s not with any sense of despair or longing that I look at my future. I look at the next two years, I’m totally booked up.

“I’ve got to do the book and it will take a year to promote it and I’ve also got 650 shows to fillet and produce and sell. That will keep me fully occupied for at least a year after I’ve done my autobiography. And then I shall be 75 and I should be thinking about lying down somewhere.”"All this b******t about me being tearful, it was b******s

“Anyone who was there knows it was wonderful. I didn’t cry. Judi Dench cried because she was singing this very lovely song to me – but nobody else cried for Christ’s sake.”