Just A Minute

From: Dean Bedford <dbedford@...>
Subject: [just-a-minute] Peter Jones
To: just-a-minute@...
Date: Monday, December 1, 2008, 7:49 PM

Yes Kenneth Williams and Paul Merton have been the two stars of JAM. But
if I had to pick one other panellist to join them in a show of my
dreams, I think it would be Peter Jones.

I think Peter's addition to the cast took the show in a new direction
which has kept it on the air. Before that the huge egos of Kenneth,
Clement Freud and Derek Nimmo threatened to make the show
ultra-competitive which would have been ultimately the wrong direction.
The fun of the show is in the banter and use of words, not who can buzz
first on repetition of "and".

When Derek had a season off, Peter Jones came in and was different. He
didn't much care if he won. He teased the others and indeed the show
itself, when it began to be taken too seriously. And he kept that up. He
said a little before his death that he never felt that he actually got
any good at the game, even after playing it for 30 years. This is a bit
modest, but you know what he means. He was always prone to hesitating
and repeating words and never as quick as others on the buzzer. If the
panel was Paul, Clement, Peter and Stephen Fry, and you had to pick one
to bet your home on, you wouldn't pick Peter.

Yet I'd say there was never a poor show with Peter on it. He was always
so witty, he always interesting to listen to, he had some of the best
lines. You just couldn't help feeling warm towards him and during his
time a show without him on it was a bit like a roast dinner without the
gravy.

Yet as brilliantly funny as he was, I can't help but think he may be the
least remembered of the three who are now playing with Linda Smith in
the heavens. Derek Nimmo and Kenneth Williams are I think better
remembered. Peter never had the big successes on TV, stage or screen
that they had and I rather think his rather bland voice and features
make him less memorable. You can be surprised to realise that's Peter in
a bit part in an old movie or TV show where Derek and Kenneth remain
instantly recognisable.

Why do I offer these ramblings today? Well, a Guardian article today
praises... Peter Jones. The piece is written by Martin Kelner who
himself mightn't be a bad JAM panellist himself. Read about him here
http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Martin_Kelner and also on his own website
here http://www.martinke lner.com/ .

Here's part of the article from the Guardian. You can read the whole
thing here
http://www.guardian .co.uk/media/ 2008/dec/ 01/digital- radio-radio . How
nice for someone to write in praise of Peter.

If radio is about a listener relating to a voice and building up some
kind of relationship with it, I feel that way about Peter Jones. Jones
is best known as the voice of the book in the radio adaptation of The
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but what I really wanted, and what
BBC7 gave me, was the voice of Jones, who died in 2000, on Just a Minute.

Despite the many fine comedians who appear on the show, and Kenneth
Williams's bravura performances in the 1970s and 80s, Jones remains my
all-time favourite panellist. He always gave the impression of an old
actor in a tweed jacket who had just wandered into the studio - which
was more or less what he was.

His glorious insouciance worked brilliantly as counterpoint to the
eager beaver chairman, Nicholas Parsons. Just as I'm Sorry I Haven't a
Clue worked because its host, Humphrey Lyttelton, was so funny and
knowing, what lifts Just a Minute into the pantheon is that it is a
comedy panel game chaired by someone with no discernible sense of
humour. Brilliant. BBC7 has also brought us repeats of another work of
genius featuring Jones - the spoof memoirs of an actor called J Kingston
Platt, first broadcast in 1988.