Just A Minute

 
<<<<   909   >>>>

Re: The timing

Messages in this topic: 2 View All
Barry FowdenMay 21, 2007
 

 
Just a small trivia point....
Nicholas use to say ..the 60 seconds IS up..which is 'bad grammar'..
as Kenneth would say..
but at some point(any JAM SUPERFREAKS know?) he started to say
(correctly)..60 seconds ARE up..

Regards

Barry

>
> this is something that more often than not causes a great deal of
> hilarity and confusion as well as aggravation for audience and
> panelists alike, in that Nicholas is usually the one that has to give
> them the time about how many seconds have passed, are left, and so on.
>
> amongst the most frequent things usually comes from the fact that
> Nicholas at times would complain that he has to subtract from 60
> because the BBC can't afford a watch that goes backwards, which
> usually means that his subtractions end up being rather suspect or
> that he'll sometimes stop the show to work out just how many seconds
> are left. In fact one particular episode that occurred in the 1980's
> I think was a prime example, to which I think the panelists were
> Sheila Hancock, Kenneth Williams, Gyles Brandreth and Derek Nimmo, I
> think, but I wouldn't swear to it. but anyway, Nicholas was again
> getting the timing wrong, because he'd been hit with a number of
> insults for the last few minutes, and he gets the time wrong and
> Kenneth pretty much says 'He can't even add up.' and Nick shouts
> out 'It's not the adding it's the subtracting' and then pretty much
> has a nervous breakdown, his voice going higher and higher like he's
> crying until his voice becomes completely unintelligible, and then
> Ian Messiter blows the whistle.
>
> another prime example of the hilarity created by others who pull up
> Nicholas for getting the timing wrong comes from an episode from
> 1973, I believe the panelists were Sheila, Derek, Peter, and Clement,
> and it happened to be on the subject of independence. Peter starts
> off the subject, gets challenged after what Nicholas says was only 4
> seconds, incorrectly, then says that Peter has 55 seconds left, to
> which Clement decrees:
>
> CF: You said he'd only been speaking for four seconds! And now you
> make it 55... where has the other second gone?
>
> a much earlier example comes from 1968, I believe the panelists were
> Clement, Kenneth, Derek and Geraldine. I think the subject was 'Why
> I've given up stockings in preference to tights', Geraldine was
> speaking on the subject, doing exceptionally well also, and then was
> challenged by Derek incorrectly, and when she started again she
> couldn't get going. now, here's the strange thing.
>
> Nicholas said she almost did the full 60 seconds, that she was only
> speaking for 50 seconds, and then says there are only 5 seconds left,
> now, this brings up something that is just mindboggling, where the
> hell did the other 5 seconds go?
>
> another perfect example i think came in an episode from the late
> 80's, I can't recall who was on the panel, or even what the subject
> was, but I think someone else was speaking for quite a bit, then
> Derek challenges on it, and Nicholas says that Derek has 60 seconds
> to speak on the subject, and Kenneth goes into a tirade on 'How can
> they're still be 60 seconds? that other bloke was speaking for ages,
> he definitely used up some of the time, so how in the hell can there
> still be 60 seconds for him to speak?'
>
> granted this does showcase the humanity of Nicholas, in that, like
> all of us mere mortals, he is prone to making mistakes. this is
> specially true when he uses the word minutes instead of seconds
> occasionally, but what gets my goat is when he tries to cover up his
> fluff by saying that he did it deliberately.
>
> another awesome moment I think came from I think 2003 or 2002, at the
> Edinburgh festival where Dara O'Briain and Greg Proops were on the
> panel, and there seemed to be an argument over how many seconds were
> actually left, at one point it seemed like there were 42 seconds,
> then there was 32 seconds, then 22 seconds, and Greg shouts out 'do I
> hear 12?'
>
> another fine moment seemed to be when Nicholas honestly didn't care
> anymore because at one point the watch seemed to keep going and no
> one actually stopped it and he had to guess how much time was
> actually left, and I think Graham Norton commented 'Yeah, let's call
> it 'Just a While' since it seemed everything was falling apart
> towards the end of the program, or at one point the clock was going
> backwards and Paul makes a comment 'Does that mean I've got
> infinity?'
>
> and also another point seemed to come from an argument Paul raised
> with Nicholas, because Nicholas said that his watch doesn't do half
> seconds, and he was speaking on something, and the whistle hadn't
> gone he was challenged, and Nicholas said that the clock reads zero,
> and Paul says 'So either I was finishing when the time expired, or
> we've got ourselves a real problem' or words to that effect.
>
> what always surprised me is that they never thought about getting a
> digital watch, it would make time keeping more accurate, but then
> again logic and accuracy really have no place on a show like 'Just a
> Minute' anyway. *shrugs*
>
> anyone else wish to comment on the timekeeping?
>

 
<<<<   909   >>>>

Back to the Top