Just A Minute at 50

[Brock]

Just a Minute is 50 years old today - and Nicholas Parsons hasn't missed a single programme, even though all the original panellists have passed away. There'll be a special edition at 6.30pm on Christmas Day:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09jrxpt

[Brock]

In addition to the above, Paul Merton will be interviewing Nicholas Parsons about his life and career at 6.15pm on New Year's Day, also on Radio 4:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09k1frv

[ian b]

A surviving edition of JAM’s immediate ancestor ONE MINUTE PLEASE is getting an outing on R4X too, (firstly at 8:30am on New Year’s Eve)...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09k9zzk

[Brock]

I've listened to all three of the above now and enjoyed them all. The Christmas Day special was particularly ingenious, splicing together pieces of old recordings to make a "seamless" compilation programme. One Minute Please was quite an eye-opener - so utterly different from the show it eventually spawned. And the interview brought many old friends back together, notably Sheila Hancock (to whom I owe an apology since she was there right from the show's very beginning).

But...

What about Clement Freud? Completely absent from the archive programme, and no mention of him whatsoever in the interview alongside the recollections of Derek Nimmo, Peter Jones and Kenneth Williams. I suppose it was inevitable, but it's sad that he had to be airbrushed out in that way.

[Brock]

Nicholas Parsons hasn't missed a single programme

...so I was a little surprised to read the billing for tonight's show: "Gyles Brandreth temporarily takes over from Nicholas Parsons as the chairman of this iconic panel game". It'll be very odd without him.

[Scary]

A bit of succession planning? Hope not, will be interesting to see how he does but I find him too irritating to take over full time eventually