This date in 1920 saw the birth of Ian Messiter, Radio panel game deviser whose creations include Just a Minute! The longest running radio game in the world. 10 things you might not know about Just a Minute:
Messiter came up with the rules of the game while riding on the top deck of a number 13 Bus. His inspiration was one of his teachers, one Percival Parry Jones, who, whenever he caught Messiter daydreaming in class, would ask him to repeat everything he had said in the previous minute without hesitation or repetition.
The object of the game, then, is to talk for one minute on a given subject without repetition (although the subject on the card can be repeated, and some common words like “the” or “and”; but even mentioning the BBC would be disallowed as it would be deemed a repetition of the letter “B”); Hesitation (no pauses, meaning the contestant must keep talking even when the audience is laughing); or deviation (originally meant deviating too far from the given subject, but it has evolved into a broader concept which now includes deviation from the English language, truth or logic).
If a challenge is correct, the person challenging scores a point and takes over talking about the subject for the remaining time. If the challenge is not correct, the speaker gets a point and continues. Whoever is speaking when the minute is up gets a point and if they have managed to speak for the whole minute without being challenged they get a bonus point. This is a rare occurrence, but the contestant who achieved it the most times is Kenneth Williams.
Kenneth Williams was also the fastest-speaking panellist, at 6.1 words a second.
The pilot for Just a Minute was recorded in 1967, featuring Clement Freud, Derek Nimmo, Beryl Reid and Willma Ewert as panellists. The host was supposed to be Jimmy Edwards, but he wasn’t available, so Nicholas Parsons reluctantly stepped in. Producer David Hatch liked Parsons so much that he insisted on keeping him as host. The first series wasn’t a great success but Hatch threatened to resign if BBC bosses didn’t give it another chance, so they did.
Parsons chaired almost every game although he was a panellist once in 1977 when Clement Freud was stuck on a train, and missed a couple more recently when he had the flu. After he died in 2020 a series of guest hosts took the chair until 2021 when Sue Perkins took on the role.
Prior to this there was a similar show called One Minute, Please, chaired by Roy Plomley, which lasted for two series. The rules were pretty much the same, but the contestants were divided into teams rather than playing as individuals.
The person who has appeared as a panellist most often is Clement Freud, who appeared 544 times. He was also known for being ultra-competitive and at times resorted to dirty tactics such as spilling a glass of water over Gyles Brandreth. The only person he never challenged was his daughter Emma, who appeared in the show in April 1990.
The second most used presenter at 350 episodes and counting is Paul Merton.
The theme music is The Minute Waltz by Chopin, played by David Haines. However, the piece of music, if played in full, lasts longer than a minute.
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