Just A Minute

OK, you're looking for discussion?

Firstly, I agree with you to a great extent. In my non-existent top
20 episodes most would be later rather than earlier, where later is
defined as post Kenneth Williams. I do love many of the older
episodes a great deal, ESPECIALLY with all the so-called original
foursome together, or where Sheila Hancock fills in for one of the
other four.

But .... and this is a big but in my mind, I think recently there has
been too much turnover of guests and that perhaps a peak was reached
in 2003. I think episodes where there are two or (god preserve us)
even more inexperienced guests, the shows flounder badly. I give as
evidence the pair of shows from Dundee in 2004 with Gyles Brandreth,
Maria McErlane, Fred MacAulay and Nick Revell. I don't think even
Gyles had been on very recently at that time and struggled to hold it
together but I do believe these were a true low.

Unless the guest/new player is particularly brilliant (eg Stephen
Fry, Ross Noble, Graham Norton, Linda Smith) then they tend to
struggle terribly, even pathetically and add little comedy except
where helped along by the regulars.

A pet-hate of mine is when a new guest clearly has hardly ever
listened to the show before and doesn't appear to be aware of basics
such as not being able to repeat words used in their first attempt at
a subject. This seems to happen so often I wonder if producers
suggest it for comedic value, if so it doesn't work for me. In fact
I'd make it a pre-requisite that any new guest had a good grounding
in the traditions of the show before being signed on for an
appearance (perhaps Edinburgh fringe episodes excepted but then only
one at a time please!).

I'm even starting to embarrass myself with the pomposity of this next
one - but this is BBC RADIO FOUR and you would hope that those
appearing on the show would have some sort of grounding in just
general knowledge... .. I could give a few examples but I will single
out Sue Perkins. In Portsmouth she had never even heard of HMS
Victory - much to the horror and disbelief of Wendy Richards (for
chrissake!) [how ironic she should also be on the panel for the
subject of admiral Collingwood in Newcastle then]. Also in London,
her home town, she not only had no clue what the Serpentine was but
seized on the idea that it was a nickname for the Thames. Surely it
must have dawned on her that in growing-up in that city she couldn't
recall anyone having ever called the Thames by the name of the most
famous lake in its most famous park?

OK, rant over and please feel free (as I know you all will) to knock
down what I've said where you disagree. I'm out on a limb and no
offence will be taken. I'll just finish by saying thank the gods of
radio for Paul Merton and may Clement Freud go on performing forever.

Dave

--- In just-a-minute@ yahoogroups. com, "Dan Leonard"
<dreadedwoekitten@ ...> wrote:
>
> I expect this will probably not make me popular around here, but I
> have to say that I firmly believe that Just a Minute has actually
been
> much better in recent years than it was in times of old. For a
start,
> I think it is much better to have a constantly varying mix of
> competitors, rather than a constant three with one guest each week.
> Secondly, I think that it is a better game with the more fixed rules
> than with the varying hodgepodge of rules that the game used to
have.
> Recently, I admit, I have only heard episodes from 2006 and from
> 1969, but in 1969 I noticed that challenges were sometimes (but not
> always) accepted for repetition of words on the card, and challenges
> were sometimes (but not always) accepted for repitition of words
that
> other competitors had used in the same round. These days both these
> situations have been clarified completely, which makes for a much
less
> frustrating game for the listener. Thirdly, I think that the game
> these days is a much more energetic game than it used to be,
possibly
> because of the influx of younger players, and possibly simply
because
> of the greater variety of players involved.
>
> Discuss.
>
> P.S. I have recently decided to start going by my middle name,
> Nathan, rather than my first name, Daniel. For some reason, the
> "From" field above this message still seems to give "Dan Leonard"
> rather than "Nathan Leonard", despite the fact that I've changed
both
> my Yahoo Profile and my Gmail Profile (as Gmail is the address I use
> for this service). Can anybody suggest why this might be so, and
how
> I might change it? Does this Group have its own profile section,
maybe?
>

---

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