John Stapleton's final interview - heartbreaking Parkinson's fear over 'best mate' son

John Stapleton used his final interview to pay tribute to his “best mate” son Nick and to say how proud he was of him.

It was announced on Sunday that John had died in hospital with his Parkinson's disease complicated by pneumonia.

But earlier this month veteran journalist John and TV host Nick had taken part in a ‘Relative values’ feature discussing each other and their background which will be published in The Sunday Times soon and has now been posted on their website.

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John, who hosted Watchdog on screen with his late wife Lynn Faulds Wood, said: “Lynn and I were both on the side of the underdog and Nick’s inherited that. He’s a genuinely decent guy who wants to help people. I tried to get him some work experience but I was pretty useless at advancing his career.

“He worked for a production company for a few years then started on the consumer programme Rogue Traders. He’s done a lot of hair-raising undercover reporting, chasing some seriously unpleasant people for the BBC ’s Scam Interceptors — there’s an attempted scam in the UK every second of every day. But then he grew up watching his mum doorstep people. He’s as fearless as she was. She was beaten with a chain once, and someone tried to run her over in a lorry. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

On his illness of his final years, he added: “My mother had Parkinson’s so I knew the signs. I had a tremor, difficulty swallowing — my voice changed. And I was beginning to walk with the Joe Biden shuffle. Nick and I had an uncomfortable discussion, we talked about whether I’d need a stairlift, or more care in the house. It was his idea to go public. We both feel a moral duty to help others. Lynn used to have a phrase, 'S*** happens; it’s what you do next that counts.' That’s sustained me. Nick is not just my best mate; I’m dependent on him now. I just have to be careful not to be a pain in the arse or a burden.”

Looking back, son Nick admitted he could see there were issues with his father before they went to the doctor.

He said: “I knew something was wrong long before he got his Parkinson’s diagnosis. His gait was off and he was holding himself differently. We went public because it’s what Mum would have done. Dad’s not a heart-on-his-sleeve kind of person, but we’re super direct with each other now.

“I’m his only kid, so helping him through this is all on me. It helps that he’s willing to open up and talk about how he feels. On the one hand I think he could have looked after himself better — he’s drunk a bottle of wine every day of his life — but I’m so inspired by his positivity. One of the first things he said after his diagnosis is that he’s had a wonderful time and if he were to die now, he’d be OK with that.”

Tributes continued to be paid to John on Monday morning as former co-hosts lined up to praise his work and to describe him as a gentleman.

On Good Morning Britain Susanna Reid said. "He was a part of this programme's history and a part of breakfast television history.”

Former GMTV host Penny Smith said: "He was professional, he was clever, he was a brilliant interviewer. He was everything you could possibly want in a co-host."

A tribute from Nick was also read out on Morning Live, where he sometimes appears on-screen. It said: “Finding the right words for this is really hard. I'm incredibly blessed to have two pretty remarkable parents.

"More than anyone, he loved my mum. Losing her broke him for a long time, though he managed to find his own way and lived a full life without her.

"He loved his friends, socialising, dinner parties, and mostly wine. He was just a very loving, unbelievably generous man. You won't meet anyone with a bad word to say about him, and you can't do much better than that."

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