Just A Minute

I'd like to take a moment to discuss another member of the 'New Breed' of JAM performers:  Chris Neil.

 

Chris' association with the program began in the late 90's when he took over producing duties from Claire Jones and did awfully well I must say.  By 2002 he decided to throw his hat into the ring and became a panelist alongside Paul Merton, Linda Smith and Kit Hesketh-Harvey. 

 

Chris had certain camp sensibilities, but he reminded me very much of how Kenneth Williams was like during his first few forays into the show.  Kenneth hadn't found his stride or tried to dominate things until the show entered the 70's.  Much like Kenneth, in Chris' early appearances, he had a tendency to admit to his own mistakes and thus lose the subject even though people tell him time and again to just keep going. 

 

I rather like Chris' contributions, as he has a great sense of humor, but what separates him from the rest though has to be his politeness and honesty, because unlike Kenneth, Chris isn't about to try and wriggle out of his mistakes, because nine times out of ten he'll admit to every single hesitation, repetition and devation that he makes while he is talking. 

 

I had the feeling that Chris was gay, mostly because of how he sounded, but didn't want to judge him simply because of his camp voice, because for all I knew it could've been just an act of pretending to be a campy homosexual.  After all, if you listened to Stephen Fry, you wouldn't think he was gay either.  But I think what really nailed it was during either his first or second appearance, and I think it was during the subject of 'Comics'.  Paul was talking about certain periodicals that had adventure stories, but were mostly words and no pictures.  I think he was talking about 'The Rover', and Linda had challenged Paul on the basis that if its only words then it can't be a comic, it's just a book.  Nicholas counter argues by mentioning 'The Rover' and also 'The Modern Boy', which Chris immediately perked up as though to insinuate that it was some kind of lurid piece of homosexual pornography.  It was a great moment.

 

Another fine moment for Chris is around 2003 or 2004.  He was on the panel with Linda Smith, Tony Hawks and I think Tim Rice, and I think he had developed a system by which he was able to garner bonus points for his humorous comments, since he knew he wasn't going to get anything legitimate for actually talking ON the subject. 

 

There was one occasion when he displayed outrage over having a subject taken away from him, I think it was on the subject of 'All Day Breakfast', and he was talking about having kidneys.  It was Alun Cochrane that challenged for deviation, because no one has kidneys for breakfast, not even an all day breakfast.  I remember reading a comment which actually applauded Chris' outrage, in that he sounded a lot like Kenneth Williams in his anger.  In my opinion, Chris didn't sound like Kenneth Williams at all, Chris sounded like a whiny woman. 

 

Whenever Kenneth had a tantrum, you felt the passion, the fury, and the anger, none of that was on display at all.  What Chris did was essentially a hissy fit. 

 

Something else that I thought was simply ridiculous was during one show, Chris grabbed Nicholas and kissed him, similar to how Kenneth used to kiss Clement Freud.  when that happened, all I kept thinking to myself was 'Kenneth was funnier'. 

 

These are small faults though.  I'm still waiting for the day when Chris is able to go for a full minute without stopping himself and saying 'Oh bugger' after every 5 seconds. 

 

Anyone else care to add?