Nicholas Parsons hosted the show for almost 52 years
Genre
Panel game
Running time
30 minutes (6:30 pm – 7:00 pm)
Country of origin
United Kingdom
Language(s)
English
Home station
BBC Radio 4
Syndicates
BBC World Service
BBC Radio 4 Extra
Hosted by
Nicholas Parsons (1967–2019)
See list of guest presenters
Sue Perkins (2021–present)[1]
Starring
Clement Freud
Peter Jones
Derek Nimmo
Kenneth Williams
Paul Merton
See list of guest panellists
Created by
Ian Messiter
Produced by
See list of producers
Recording studio
BBC Radio Theatre
Remote studios
Various, including the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Original release
22 December 1967 (1967-12-22) – present
No. of series
92 (as of January 2024)
No. of episodes
981
Opening theme
The Minute Waltz by Frédéric Chopin
Website
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006s5dp
Just a Minute is a BBC Radio 4 radio comedy panel game, hosted by Sue Perkins since 2021. For more than 50 years, with a few exceptions, it was hosted by Nicholas Parsons. Following Parsons' death in 2020, Perkins assumed the host's chair permanently, starting with the 87th series. Just a Minute was first transmitted on Radio 4 on 22 December 1967, three months after the station's launch.[2] The programme won a Gold Sony Radio Academy Award in 2003.[3][4]
The object of the game is for panellists to talk for sixty seconds on a given subject, "without hesitation, repetition or deviation".[5] The comedy comes from attempts to keep within these rules and the banter among the participants. In 2011, comedy writer David Quantick ascribed Just a Minute's success to its "insanely basic" format, stating, "It's so blank that it can be filled by people as diverse as Paul Merton and Graham Norton, who don't have to adapt their style of humour to the show at all."[6]
Throughout its half-century history, the show has, in addition to its popularity in the UK, developed an international following through its broadcast on the BBC World Service and, more recently, on the internet. The format has also occasionally been adapted for television.
^"Sue Perkins announced as new host of Just a Minute". BBC News. 20 July 2021. Retrieved 20 July 2021.
^BBC Radio 4 was launched on 30 September 1967, around three months before Just a Minute was created.
^"2003 Winners". Sony Radio Academy. Archived from the original on 5 December 2004. Retrieved 14 October 2010.
^"Sony Radio Awards 2003: Winners". BBC News. BBC. 8 May 2003. Retrieved 14 October 2010. The UK's main prizes for the airwaves, the Sony Radio Academy Awards, have been handed out in London. Comedy award: Just A Minute
^Jeffries, Stuart (16 February 2016). "Paul Merton on Just a Minute: 'Our worst contestant? Esther Rantzen'". The Guardian. London. eISSN 1756-3224. Retrieved 15 February 2020. The host gives one of four contestants a topic to talk about for 60 seconds and they have to do so without hesitation, repetition or deviation.
^Dee, Johnny (17 May 2011). "Just a Minute: why it's never paused". The Guardian. London. eISSN 1756-3224. Retrieved 30 January 2020. But what is the secret of its success? "I think it's because the format is insanely basic," says radio comedy writer David Quantick. "It's so blank that it can be filled by people as diverse as Paul Merton and Graham Norton, who don't have to adapt their style of humour to the show at all."
JustaMinute is a BBC Radio 4 radio comedy panel game, hosted by Sue Perkins since 2021. For more than 50 years, with a few exceptions, it was hosted...
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presenter. He was the long-running presenter of the comedy radio show JustaMinute and hosted the game show Sale of the Century during the 1970s and early...
replacing original host Nick Hancock. Merton appears as a panellist regularly on Radio 4's JustaMinute, first appearing in 1989, and became the only remaining...
would present a new two-hour weekend show, entitled 'The Larry Gogan Show' instead of The Golden Hour. Gogan was famous for his "JustaMinute Quiz", which...
C-sharp minor. A fast version of the waltz, played by Arthur Rubinstein, has served as the theme music for the BBC Radio 4 show JustaMinute since the programme’s...
as a radio broadcaster and television presenter, notably of The Great British Bake Off (2010–2016), Insert Name Here (2016–2019) and JustaMinute (since...
10 Cats (as a regular team captain), Never Mind the Buzzcocks, A League of Their Own, Mock the Week, Would I Lie to You?, QI, JustaMinute, Safeword,...
Hancock and Kenneth Horne, as well as being a regular panellist on BBC Radio 4's comedy panel show JustaMinute from its second series in 1968 until his...
On radio, he makes frequent appearances on the BBC Radio 4 programme JustaMinute. In 1992, Brandreth was elected to the House of Commons as the Conservative...
Freud was the longest serving panellist on the BBC Radio 4 panel show JustaMinute, appearing in each of the first 143 episodes, and making subsequent...
Girl". According to Musicnotes.com, "Justa Girl" is set in common time and has a fast tempo of 184 beats per minute. It is set in the key of D major, with...
appearances on BBC Radio 4 in programmes such as The News Quiz and JustaMinute. Since 2014 she has been the presenter of The Great British Bake Off:...
Michael Palin. Rice has also been a frequent guest panellist for many years on the radio panel games JustaMinute and Trivia Test Match. Rice also made...
the 1990s he was also a regular guest on comedy panel show Have I Got News for You and the TV version of the quiz show JustaMinute. He also occasionally...
"Wait a Minute" (Ray J song), 2000 "Wait aMinute!", a 2015 single by Willow "Wait aMinute (Justa Touch)", a 2007 song by Estelle "Wait aMinute", a song...
Barbarik the same question, Barbarik claimed he could conclude the war in justaminute. His reasoning was that his arrows could swiftly identify and strike...
1001 words is worth more than a picture." The Commissar Vanishes Ekphrasis Picture superiority effect cf JustaMinute "Speakers Give Sound Advice". Syracuse...
Parlor Senri and King Tacos, located justaminute from the main gate of Camp Hansen in Kin, Okinawa. Taco rice is a popular dish among U.S. military personnel...
first time on the BBC Radio Four comedy panel game JustaMinute, which he won. In November 2011, he won a Children in Need edition of Celebrity Mastermind...