Just A Minute
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| Genre | Panel game |
|---|---|
| Running time | 28 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| Home station | BBC Radio 4 |
| Hosted by | Nicholas Parsons |
| Starring |
Regular panellists Sir Clement Freud (1967–2009) Derek Nimmo (1967–99) Kenneth Williams (1968–88) Peter Jones (1971–2000) Paul Merton (1989–) |
| Created by | Ian Messiter |
| Produced by |
David Hatch (1967–75, 1979–81) Simon Brett (1969–75) John Cassells (1973) Bob Oliver-Rogers (1973–74) John Lloyd (1974–76) John Browell (1976–78) Pete Atkin (1982–86) Edward Taylor (1987–91) Sarah Smith (1992–95) Anne Jobson (1994–98) Chris Neill (1998–2000, 2004) Claire Jones (2001–6, 2008–12) Tilusha Ghelani (2007–8, 2010–2015) Katie Tyrrell (2013–2015) |
| Air dates | since 22 December 1967 |
| No. of series | 74 |
| No. of episodes | 879 |
| Opening theme | The Minute Waltz by Frédéric Chopin |
| Website | Just a Minute |
Just a Minute is a BBC Radio 4 radio comedy and television panel game chaired by Nicholas Parsons. Its first transmission on Radio 4 was on 22 December 1967, three months after the station's launch. The Radio 4 programme won a Gold Sony Radio Academy Award in 2003.
The object of the game is for panellists to talk for sixty seconds on a given subject, "without , repetition or ". The comedy comes from attempts to keep within these rules and the banter among the participants. In 2011 comedy writer David Quantick ascribed Just a Minute's success to its "insanely basic" format, stating, "It's so blank that it can be filled by people as diverse as Paul Merton and Graham Norton, who don't have to adapt their style of humour to the show at all."
Throughout its half-century history, the show has, in addition to its popularity in the UK, developed an international following through its broadcast on the BBC World Service and, more recently, on the internet.
The idea for the game came to Ian Messiter as he rode on the top of a number 13 bus. He recalled Percival Parry Jones, a history master from his days at Sherborne School who, upon seeing the young Messiter daydreaming in a class, instructed him to repeat everything he had said in the previous minute without hesitation or repetition. To this, Messiter added a rule disallowing players from deviating from the subject, as well as a scoring system based on panellists' challenges.
The format was first used in One Minute Please, chaired by Roy Plomley, broadcast on BBC radio between 1951 and 1957. Whilst the fundamental rules were the same, the game was played in two teams of three rather than with four individual contestants. Other early incarnations of the show, all created by Messiter, include a 1952 version on South African radio, and a television version on the DuMont network in the United States.
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