Moving right along, I'd like to talk about someone else who has become closely associated with Just a Minute as part of the next generation, or the New Breed of performers to follow Paul Merton onto the series: Tony Hawks.
He premiered on the series I believe in 1992 along with Paul, Clement and Peter Jones, and did exceptionally well to make his presence felt, and I recall his debut appearance being a very entertaining show in that Tony was very funny and caught on to how to play the game rather quickly, and has since made many memorable appearances over the years.
Tony was definitely very quick-witted, vocally agile, intelligent, cheeky, and very playful and also just damn funny. He also had something of a persona of being something of a ladies' man, or as Nicholas would call him 'an international toy boy'. I've seen pictures of Tony, and it's not hard to see why such a label should be
given to him. He certainly is good looking, and has a certain quality in his looks similar to matinee movie idols of the old days of Hollywood.
Tony was amongst the few regular radio panelists on JAM to take part in the two televised versions of JAM both in '94 and in '99, and his appearances were excellent in that he injected some stability to what could be seen as a very unstable experiment.
One of my favorite moments came from two episodes where he was on the panel with Clement, Sue Perkins and Jeremy Hardy, and it was a situation where Sue, Jeremy, and Tony had each spoken for a full minute without being interrupted, and the thought was hopefully Clement would do just as well, being an experienced player, and Tony had the bold face cheek to interrupt him, with what I feel was a very funny and humorous challenge. Clement was talking about going to some restaurant and he had said that
he spent many years eating bacon, sausage and tomato, and Tony's challenge was that it doesn't take many years to eat bacon, sausage and tomato, that 'he has to eat quicker'.
Another one of my favorite moments came from an episode where he had been talking about dressing up like Florence Nightingale, and saying that he would stride or walk about with an elegance that would surprise viewers, and he gets challenged by Paul in that no one would be surprised, and an incredible debate erupts because of it, although most of it was due in large part to Stephen Fry coming to Tony's defense.
I seem to recall that he did have some success as a musician years ago in a group called 'Morris Minor and the Majors'.
And I also seem to recall that he wrote a book called 'Round Ireland With a Fridge' recounting how he essentially went around Ireland with a fridge to win a bet of
some kind.
I also know he's something of a philanthropist, but what other professional things aside from stand up comedy has he done? Anyone wish to share their memories?