Welcome to Just a Minute!: A Celebration of Britain’s Best-Loved Radio Comedy

As its nine hundredth episode approaches, Just a Minute has consistently entertained BBC Radio 4 listeners, and many others around the world, since its first broadcast in December 1967. Inspired by a punishment handed out at school, the show’s creator Ian Messiter devised a deceptively simple and versatile set of rules that has allowed the game to adapt and thrive as each new era of comedy entertainers emerges. Over forty-seven consecutive years, fans have laughed along with Kenneth Williams’ outrageously funny ‘battles’ with Sheila Hancock, Paul Merton’s imaginative flights of fancy, Clement Freud’s acerbic wit, Julian Clary’s flagrant innuendos, Graham Norton’s celebrity ‘gossip’, Jenny Eclair’s brutal honesty, Gyles Brandreth’s extravagant monologues and Sue Perkins’ infectious enthusiasm to name only a handful of the more than two hundred star entertainers who have braved the Just a Minute panel. In this official celebration, chairman Nicholas Parsons, the only person to have appeared in every programme, recalls the very best, occasionally awkward and often hilarious, moments that have lit up the comedy airwaves over six decades.Magical minutes, verbal dexterity, sharp one-liners and witty challenges can all be marvelled at once again as Nicholas tells the Just a Minute story from its inauspicious pilot episode, through television and stage versions, and on to the present day, without hesitation, repetition or deviation. Well, not too much deviation…

Reviews of Welcome to Just a Minute!: A Celebration of Britain’s Best-Loved Radio Comedy

* A joyous compendium of facts, fun and stories. This hilarious and informative guide is destined to become the companion to radio's most enduring panel game — PAUL MERTON * Just a Minute is my favourite gig … It is as global as it is timeless. It is forever refreshed and unpredictable. I love it — SUE PERKINS