just a minute

Twelve years ago I mentioned my interest in Just a Minute and um I also mentioned my interest in it a few months ago too, it's one of those very addictive slightly guilty-pleasure shows that not only runs and runs on a very simple premise / set of ideas, it has also developed its own internal ambience which probably makes it a little hard to get into (I'm not sure) if you haven't been listening to it for close to fifty years on and off like I have. 

After Nicholas Parsons died, which was always going to happen, they rotated hosts for a little while from the regular panelists, now it would seem they have settled on Sue Perkins as host. She was an excellent panelist so it's kind of sad to lose her in that capacity. She's very sharp of course and does a great job as host except in the way she consistently demonises Gyles Brandreth when he's on. 

Brandreth is a very, very funny man. He has created a wonderful persona for this program (or maybe it's him - I don't know, I've barely ever encountered him in any other forum). It's a kind of pompous showman with a grab-bag of old tropes that belie his apparently horrible politics. What gets up my nose is Perkins' decision to make Brandreth a scapegoat as though he was some sort of old perv at worst or at best someone who always needs taking down a peg or two. I don't really understand why; she may not like his politics, which is fine neither do I, but he is a brilliant personality for a show like this and he adds a huge amount. More to the point, with JAM's rather sour history of tolerating (but no-one knew - did they?) an actual sexual predator as a beloved member of the core cast for decades, I'm talking of course about Clement Freud, it seems a bit rich to be berating Gyles Brandreth in ways that, if you didn't stop to think about it, you'd think he was actually in some way toxic or handsy. I'm sure he isn't, because it wouldn't be tolerated for a second. 

I'm still sad about Clement Freud! I thought he was magnificent and I loved the Grimble books too. 

Incidentally I found a copy of The Kenneth Williams Letters somewhere (I can't remember where) and am dipping into it. It's interesting and absolutely not funny. Like a lot of people in his profession Williams is not only a miserable person, he sees the world very much in black and white. Of course he was intensely inhibited as well. Complete fucking genius though when he was doing what he did best. He was superb on Just a Minute indeed that might have been where he did his best work - ? 

Seems silly to be writing about JAM and to not mention the completely excellent Paul Merton. The glue that holds the thing together - even when he's not on it, in some weird way. Merton is also the link between the old and the new JAM, having essentially replaced Williams and so worked with the other three original panelists of Peter Jones, Derek Nimmo and Freud. But I should also say that paradoxically the show really improved at the turn of the century, in my unscientific estimation (i.e. I have no proof of this, just my memory thinking back) before Parsons started to seem not entirely sure where he was, and from when Jones, Nimmo and Freud were still around, joined by Merton, and then transitioned into a much larger pool of guests including a lot more women. I mean the show in the 70s and 80s was a lot of fun for the time but looking back it could have been a lot more than a show of five white men talking amongst themselves, for crying out loud! But I'm going from unscientific to ahistorical, aren't I. Apologies. It's still a great show but maybe it's a bit uncertain, well I suppose a lot of 55 year old people are uncertain so imagine being a 55 year old radio show. 

fcuwm4

Word is I should treat this illness as though I needed more rest than I feel like I do, which is hard. This morning I felt dreadful on waking but now aside from a mild headache I feel completely fine. So figure that out. Yesterday I watched a lot of Homicides. Saw some interesting people. I'm not even going to ask you to guess these two because the two people I showed them to who were very au fait with their body of work a few decades later, were unable to place them at all. OK, one little clue (aside from the one dropped in the previous post) just in case you want to play: They were famous together. Bizarrely, they were in consecutive eps of Homicide. 

'Ray Fox' in the episode 'Wasp Nest'

'Alice Baker' in the episode 'Let's Get Together' 

OK it's Ian Smith and Anne Charleston. Well I was excited. 

I wonder if they regret making that record. I would. 

Someone I am really loving in these Homicides Gerard Kennedy. He's fabulous. He had bit roles in Homicide four times in 1966. Here he is as the jive talking boxer Eddie Stevens in 'Knife and Beads'.

And here he is as 'Peter O'Brien', the deluded escapee who shoots Bronson in Elsternwick. He's 90 years old this year, fabulous actor. 

One more thing in 'Knife and Beads' is this funny little moment when the three detectives get out of the car with their guns ready for a shoot out in a suburban house and this little kid waddles down the street. I wonder if they even noticed she was there (I mean, the camera crew). That kid is my age lol. 

Along with my comfort watching of old Homicides I am indulging in comfort listening to the new series of Just a Minute on the BBC app. I'm conflicted, because although (or because?) it's well-stocked with all the favourites from the last decade plus, and while the last few years of Nicholas Parsons was a little awkward as there were clearly moments when he didn't know what was happening and the others indulged him, now without him they do seem to be floundering a little. What's odd is that Paul Merton, who was definitely in cahoots with Parsons as the kind of second-in-command, and would in other circumstances make the move up to being the new host, clearly doesn't want to because he can't then do what he does best - be funny as a contestant - and so others like Sue Perkins (who's always good) and Jenny Eclair (ditto) and Gyles Brandreth (who despite myself I find hilarious) are doing it. I actually think that NP's great value was that, while he could be funny himself, he really just took a schoolteacher role, trying to reign in the mayhem, and being strict with the rules. I think there is a slight air of desperation here with JAM at the moment, and this series certainly sees a lot more interruptions that NP wouldn't have tolerated - of the 'What's your challenge?' 'I just wanted him to stop' kind of variety. 

The show still has not secret weapons exactly, but definitely weapons. I love Sheila Hancock, and I certainly hope I'm half as switched on as she is when I'm 89 (I'm not even sure I am now). I actually really enjoy almost everyone on the program. But I suppose I would have to say that it's not as good as it was with NP, and it won't have a chance of getting there again until they instal a new chair who is either slightly less funny and slightly more clueless than the rest of them - or can fake being so. 

just a minute

I can't stand listening to the news at the moment because it almost always seems to be something about Gillard's demise. Instead when possible I listen to a strange stream called The JAMmer which promises 'Decades of Just a Minute'. And that is what you get. A seemingly (but probably not) random selection of constant Just a Minutes over the last 44 years. If it is being compiled, it's by someone with a Kenneth Williams enthusiasm. I think I mentioned a few months back hearing the very first Just a Minute on Radio National. Yesterday I heard a notorious notable episode, from I think 1969, when Nicholas Parsons wasn't the chair but a contestant, and Clement Freud was the chair. No explanation and guess what, not very good. But some (most) eps are sterling. You can access it via the Just a Minute blog listed on the left, and then through one of its links.

It feels guilty, like I've given up on now and want to wallow in then, but that's not really true. It's just that the news right now is so shitty.

just a minute

I have been enjoying Just a Minute since I was about 10. The ABC used to play new episodes, they don't anymore but now I can listen to it on Radio 4. I recommend you try. It's a hoot, though I am disturbed by Nicholas Parsons. Can this really be a man of 87? Should I be disturbed or just pleased for him and those around him? Sue Perkins, a person I have only ever experienced via her contribution to BBC radio quiz shows, gives a particularly funny summary of her career in this week's episode too.

When I go OS next year part of my dream during my r&r leave would be to attend a taping of Just a Minute in the UK and one of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me in Chicago. You sort of think these things would never happen but then you remember that you got to see Todd Rundgren in Bristol the last time you went to the UK and he was just starting his first tour in umpteen years... all kinds of things are possible (Buttons).

(Notice on the right I have a link to Dean from Wellington's Just a Minute site - it's also a hoot)

dreaming is free

I dreamt that... shit. I dreamt a long and involved dream that ended with an old lady winning Just a Minute on the basis that she knew a dolphin was a fish, and getting to kiss Nicholas Parsons on the cheek (by the way the new series of Just a Minute which I believe is the 53rd is on the BBC website now, though this week's isn't the best episode ever). I also dreamt that someone got Roger Dean to design something but not in his trademark style, more in the style of a woodcut. But now I can't remember what.

Maybe I didn't dream this at all. Because what I did dream is writing all of my dream down, and thinking 'gee, there's a lot to this dream, it's filling pages and pages and it's all really interesting'. Then I woke up and was majorly pissed because I hadn't written it down at all. I dreamt I was writing it in green biro, incidentally, which should have alerted me to the unrealisticness of the scenario.

What is not free is watching bad DVDs. Last night I drained the dregs out of the local Blockbuster and got Casino Royale, Semi Pro and the most recent Almodovar film. Semi-Pro was the nightly so we had to watch that, and because I am sick for the 53rd time this year (yes, the exact same amount as there have been seasons of Just a Minute), I insisted on Casino Royale first, you know, because sick people like childish things. It was OK. I would like to have had scientobabble explanation of what Bond puts on his face to make it heal so fast, but looking for any special logic isn't going to bring you much joy in that kind of a film is it. Semi Pro is yet another Will Ferrell sports biopic parody. If I had ever seen one of the originals of this genre, if it is a genre which I assume it is, then these might make more sense to me, but why should the makers of these films care about that - after all, I have no particular knowledge of the genre being parodied, yet I have seen all the Ferrell parodies (I think). The only downside to the onslaught of these films is that by the time I came to Semi Pro I wasn't sure if I'd seen it before or not. (Actually there only seem to be three of these films. I thought there were about six.) Anyway, it's, you know, OK, I didn't laugh. I was quite impressed by the 70s disco parody, artistically.

The only time I was moved to comment on the Bond film was the reckless vandalism of an old hand-caned chair. But I did think about it more later. One thing I thought about was the bit where they demolish an old Venetian building in the course of battling over a silver suitcase containing $120 million. I am sure that sometime soon the external shots in that scene are going to look really fake, you know, people in 2020 will be saying 'Despite the truly awful oughties special effects...' but because they're probably still world's best practice and I have never seen a Venetian building collapse I am not entirely sure why they look fake. Perhaps one way around this in the future will be to eliminate the static, impartial camera shot, which looks like a special effects set-up. What do you think my friend?

just a minute

Picture stolen from this and featuring Ian Messiter, the show's creator, in place of Peter Jones

I have been a fan of Just a Minute since the 70s, and I have recently been enjoying two varieties of the same show, one on BBC radio 4, which is the current show (presently off air but I'm sure it'll be back soon) and the other is what I suppose is a 1980s version though nobody says how old it is, which Radio National play at 5:30 on a Monday morning. This is so secret, it's not even in the Green Guide (I think it's just listed as 'comedy', which in the case of Just a Minute is true enough, but in the case of some of the other shows in this timeslot throughout the week such as the execrable My Word and the bizarrely appalling My Music, would be better described as theatre of the absurd). There is something to be said for both versions, but since I was just listening to the 5:30 am one a short time ago, I will briefly talk on that.

JAM began in the late 1960s with a host ('chairman', they say) Nicholas Parsons and four panelists: Clement Freud, Derek Nimmo, Peter Jones and Kenneth Williams. I feel I can speak freely about all of these people because the latter three are dead and the first is still completely alive and my freely expressed opinion of him is that he is brilliant - after all, he wrote Grimble and Grimble at Christmas, didn't he.* Derek Nimmo I always found a bit of a bore; here he's the kind of Frank Muir of the panel, i.e. satan. Peter Jones I have a soft spot for - good comic actor - though in JAM he is more like the everyman, never really cuts it, makes us feel better though. Kenneth Williams is an extraordinary genius.

If you don't know the show I will tell you (and not ask you 'what on earth have you done with your life up till now?'). The notion is that you speak on a given subject (I have heard this so many times I have probably committed it to memory) without repetition, deviation or hesitation for one minute. If you do so you get a point, though of course most people can't. If someone else challenges you on one of the above factors, and is successful, they get a point and they take over for the remainder of the minute. Of course like most of these things (News Quiz on Radio 4 is a contemporary example) the game format is hardly relevant to anything, it gives it an edge and an ostensible purpose but the real competition is the show-off aspect of it.

I have already dismissed two of the original panellists. Kenneth Williams was recently the subject of a two-part documentary on Radio 4 discussing his last days - it is the 20th anniversary of his death probably or possibly by suicide, this year - and much was made in that, quite accurately, of the way JAM allowed him to use his great general knowledge. A few weeks ago on the RN repeat of JAM he gave a minute's soliloquy on Giotto which was simply magnificent, particularly for being apparently entirely off the cuff. He was also exceedingly erudite, but at the same time, did a lot of his JAM delivery in a bizarre series of elongated and strangulated sentences that make it often quite impossible to understand what he is saying. He freely admits on the show (sorry to cut back and forth in tense) that this is a deliberate ploy to maximise his chances of winning, though of course it is also often very funny. Clement Freud, who was apparently a well-known TV chef of all things and then a Liberal politician, is a lot more whimsical - showing a sharp wit particularly in constructing absurd scenarios based around a pun (he came a cropper in this morning's show when the topic was 'Getting out of a Maze' and he started on a monologue about corn and was pulled up on it because 'a maize' is incorrect English) or making humorous plays on other people's previous statements. Like Williams, he is also a joy to listen to and probably would be even if you didn't understand English, maybe not for as long as if you did understand English.

The shows of the early 80s, which is as I said what I assume we are being played on RN at the moment, are not quite timeless. There are some veiled references to Williams' sexuality (not, of course, from him) and some other generally old fashioned explorations of anxiety over ladies' underpants et al which still is the stock-in-trade of British comedy I suppose but at least they cover it up a bit better now (oo er). I noticed in this morning's repeat that Parsons was still referring to the usual team, but I don't think I've heard one in months that featured the four originals, usually three of them plus a guest which has generally been a woman, to whom they often defer and patronise in various ways. In this morning's case it was Victoria Wood who really did quite well.

If you only ever heard the Kenneth Williams/Clement Freud JAMs you would wonder how they could keep the show going without them. Freud is still fairly regular in the program today, and he must be in his 80s surely, but in fact the format is sufficiently strong that it is entirely sustainable. Such a simple premise, and might I say, not only is it a funny thing to listen to, it does make you appreciate much about spoken English that you might otherwise not consider, not that it's educational or anything, except inasmuch as the repeats show us that Kenneth Williams was one of the great minds of the 20th century, not in an all-round sense because I don't see him as a marvellous creator and innovator, except as an interpreter of other people's work, but also in the sense that he had an exceptional capacity to respond and reflect, and that's not to be sneezed at.

Update 2024: I forgot I had written this, or about Freud ever, but of course he's now posthumously cancelled, and seemingly rightly so.