Just A Minute

On Sat, Sep 14, 2013 at 12:32 AM, Dean <dbedford@...> wrote:

so as not to clog up your emails too much – a couple of recent blog posts

 

Nicholas Parsons is writing a book about Just A Minute, which is due to be published next year.

 

The story is here, courtesy comedy.co.uk

 

Nicholas Parsons has signed a Just A Minute-linked book deal.

He will write Welcome to Just a Minute!, the first book to cover the long-running radio panel show in which guests are challenged to speak on topics without hesitation, repetition or deviation.

Parsons has hosted every edition of the Radio 4 panel show, more than 800 episodes, which was launched on the station in December 1967. The 89 year-old has also presented three TV transfers of the format, the most recent of which was on BBC Two early last year.

Publishers Canongate won an auction of rights to release the book, which will be published as an official BBC tie-in. The book is expected to be ready to launch at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August 2014.

Welcome to Just a Minute! will cover the history of the show and its panellists, with transcripts of its best moments and contributions from regular panellists.

Nicholas Parsons says: "While it is my responsibility as Chairman to guide the show, I consider it equally important to generate the fun we create in what is a truly unscripted and spontaneous programme, and it is an honour to be asked to bring the spirit of the show into book form."

Canongate's Jenny Lord, who will edit the book, adds: "I've been tuning in to Just A Minute for as long as I can remember. A British comedy institution, it is consistently brilliant and no surprise that after forty-five years, it is still our best-loved radio comedy."

 

I've known about this for a few months, since my friend Keith is helping with it .

 

I'm pleased to see a JAM book and fully expect a beautiful bedside tome, hopefully with great illustrations.

 

The idea of having some of the panellists write about their memories is a good one. Hopefully those still around from the 60s and 70s (Andree Melly? Aimi Macdonald?) won't be forgotten.

 

We have heard a lot from Nicholas on his view of JAM over the years, in his previous books, on the classic CDs and so on. Hopefully he will still have some interesting things to add to what he has said before!

 

 

 

 

There's been some discussion on the Yahoo group on the subject of uninterrupted minutes since the recent show where Sue Perkins had two of them. Nicholas claimed that was a first.

 

There have been a few shows where this has been done. The record is actually three times in one show, by the late lamented Sir Clement Freud in a show in 1981.

 

Sue is certainly getting better and better at the game though!

 

Someone else pointed out that it's now been a while since Paul Merton and Tony Hawks were on a show together. They were last on a TV show together in April last year, and it's more than two years since they were on a radio show together.

 

Strangely they also didn't appear together for almost three years between August 1999 and July 2002. And in that period, they were second and third in total appearances, behind Clement.

 

I think the current absence is partly because Tony Hawks is appearing far less frequently than he was a few years ago.

 

A similar oddity... since Clement's death in April 2009, Gyles Brandreth and Sue Perkins are second and third in total appearances. Yet in those four and a half years, they have not been on a show together.

 

 

 

 

With the final recordings for the year done we are able to list the panel appearances in 2013. I won't do my annual review of the player performances until after the Christmas special.

 

There were 24 panellists this year - the smallest number in some time.

 

Among those who didn't do JAM this year is a list that could make up a pretty good show - Kit Hesketh-Harvey, Ross Noble, Stephen Fry, Charles Collingwood, Shappi Khorsandi and Phill Jupitus are among them.

 

This years's list then (from 22 shows)...

 

Paul Merton 18

Gyles Brandreth 10

Tony Hawks, Graham Norton, Sue Perkins, Julian Clary, Jenny Eclair, Pam Ayres, Alun Cochrane, Richard Herring, Stephen Mangan 4

Russell Kane 3

Sheila Hancock, Liza Tarbuck, Marcus Brigstocke, Josie Lawrence, Fred MacAulay, Kevin Eldon, Jason Manford, Patrick Kielty, Roy Walker 2

Greg Proops, Henry Blofeld, Joe Lycett 1

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James R Curry

scratchy@...