‘A miracle of broadcasting talent’&
Tributes flood in for Nicholas Parsons following death at 96
Just A Minute host and “broadcasting giant” Nicholas Parsons has died aged 96. Parsons was with his family when he died yesterday morning after a short illness, his agent said.
The veteran broadcaster was best known for Just A Minute where panellists speak for one minute without hesitation, deviation or repetition.
He fronted the Radio 4 show since its inception in 1967, only missing two recordings.
Parsons’ last episode aired on 16 September last year.
The teenage Parsons aspired to be an actor but his parents thwarted his ambition by using family contacts to get him an apprenticeship in a shipyard in Clydebank, near Glasgow. He spent five years on Clydeside, during which time he studied engineering at the University of Glasgow,
Parsons said the tough working environment inspired him to tell jokes to win over his workmates who regarded him as a “posh English boy” while he also enlisted in the Home Guard during his wartime stint in Clydebank
Stephen Fry was among many stars paying tribute to Parsons, also known for his role as question master on TV show Sale Of The Century.
“He ruled Just A Minute for Just a Lifetime,” Fry wrote on Twitter. “A stunning achievement – never scripted, always immaculate. From comedian’s sidekick to great institution, via Sale Of The Century and much more. Unrivalled continuity, professionalism and commitment. Farewell.”
Chat show host Graham Norton said Parsons was “truly the kindest and most generous person I’ve ever worked with”.
Writer and broadcaster Gyles Brandreth said it was “the end of an era”.
“I thought he was immortal because he was always so alive,” he said.
“Such sadness today, but what a career to celebrate, from the 1940s to 2020. My hero.”
Radio 4 Today presenter Nick Robinson said “Parsons was a broadcasting giant who proved the straight man could be the real star of comedy. Will be hugely missed by all who work at and love.”
Parsons’agentjeandiamond issued a statement on behalf of his family, saying: “Nicholas passed away in the early hours of 28 January after a short illness at the age of 96. He was with his beloved family who will miss him enormously and who wish to thank the wonderful staff at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital.”
Parsons missed a recording of Just A Minute for only the second time in 52 years last summer due to a bad back.
The broadcaster was born in Grantham, Lincolnshire, and found TV fame appearing with comic Arthur Haynes in his ITV show in the early 1960s, and he was also a regular on the Benny Hill Show.
BBC director-general Tony Hall said: “Very few people have done so much to entertain audiences over the decades and no-one deserves to be called a broadcasting legend more than Nicholas Parsons.
“His charm, inventive intellect and ability to create laughs were unsurpassed.”
Mohit Bakaya, controller of BBC Radio 4, said: “Nicholas Parsons was one of the greats, a first-class broadcaster and an icon in the world of British comedy.”
Piers Morgan said Parsons was a “wonderful man who brought so much fun, charm, wit and pleasure”.
Parsons married his second wife Ann Reynolds in 1995. He had two children from his first marriage to Denise Bryer.
“Parsons was a broadcasting giant who proved the straight man could be the real star of comedy. Will be hugely missed by all ...”
GRAHAM NORTON
Christopher Nicholas Parsons CBE, actor and broadcaster. Born: 10 October 1923 in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Died: 28 January 2020, aged 96.
Nicholas Parsons was a true veteran of the stage, screen and airwaves with a career which spanned more than half a century.
He clocked up numerous acting and comedy parts, but he was best known for his years as question master of TV quiz Sale Of The Century and for his role as host of BBC Radio 4’s Just A Minute, which he was still presenting well into his 90s.
Despite his glittering CV, he once said he believed he would have got more work if he had been “more rugged-looking”.
In 2012, he celebrated the 45th anniversary of Just a Minute – in which celebrity guests strive to talk about a subject for 60 seconds “without hesitation, repetition or deviation” – with a TV version broadcast by BBC2.
In 2016, Prince Charles, a fan of the show, performed a cameo on the programme’s Christmas special.
Parsons was born on 10 October, 1923, in Grantham, Lincolnshire, where his father was GP to the family of Baroness Thatcher. After studying at St Paul’s School in London, he headed to Clydebank as an apprentice engineer, despite his own hopes of becoming an actor.
But his impressions were featured in a radio show and, following performances with amateur concert parties after the Second World War, he moved into acting, working in rep at Bromley in Kent. Comic roles proved to be a speciality and he became resident comedian at the Windmill Theatre in London after working on the cabaret circuit in the 1950s.
He found TV fame appearing with comic Arthur Haynes in his ITV show in the early 1960s, and he was also a regular on The Benny Hill Show. At the tail end of 1967, he introduced Just A Minute for thefirsttime–andtheshowis still going strong today.
Within a few years, he had also become known for hosting ITV’S Sale Of The Century, with its notable opening line “And now from Norwich, it’s the quiz of the week ...” which launched as a regional show in 1971, and was broadcast nationally by 1975.
Parsons had guest roles in
Doctor Who, children’s series Bodger And Badger, as well as taking a cross-dressing role in a touring production of The Rocky Horror Show in his 70s.
In 1990, he starred in London’s West End in Stephen Sondheim’s musical Into The Woods, and his autobiography The Straight Man – My Life in Comedy was published in 1994.
He was a regular guest on television and radio comedy shows, and in 1999 he took his comedy chat show The Nicholas Parsons Happy Hour to the Edinburgh Festival, returning in years that followed.
Interviewed by The Scotsman’s sister paper, Scotland on Sunday, during a run at the Fringe in 2011, Parsons said: “I say I’m not only running on my own adrenalin, but also some borrowed adrenalin too.
“At my advanced age I should have been retired a long time ago, but as I said in the Pleasance the other day… someone came up to me and said, “you’re back, you’ve been coming for a few years now, are you not retired?” I said no, I’m in a profession that retires you once your audience no longer wants you. They decide when you leave, and I’m in a position that as long as they still want me, I’m going to keep hacking it!”
In the same interview, he said of the Fringe: “It’s not just a place where you can try things out, it’s a place where you can try things out and there are potentially a lot of people to see you. It might lead on to bigger and better things, there’s a great buzz in the air. I think it’s the best place to be in August.”
Notable projects include The Arthur Haynes Show, Carry On Regardless, and Cluedo, and he starred in West End comedies Boeing Boeing and Say Who You Are, as well as musicals and revues.
His first major success on television was as the straight man to Haynes in the famous partnership that flourished in the 1960s, and included Swing Along, a season in 1963 at the London Palladium.
Among his many charitable commitments, he had a long association with the Grand Order of Water Rats and the Lord’s Taverners, for which he has served as president.
Parsons said he was “flattered and delighted” to be awarded a CBE for his charitable work in December 2013.
He said at the time that he would save celebrations for his day at the palace.
“I received the letter two months ago and was told to keep quiet about it or it might be taken away so my wife and I kept quiet about it,” he revealed.“we won’t be celebrating until the day we go to the palace – I’ve done so much celebrating for my 90th birthday this year.” Ten years previously, Parsons received an OBE for services to drama and broadcasting.
On June 4, 2018, he missed his first ever episode of Just A Minute after 50 years at the helm and over more than 900 instalments. He was replaced by regular panellist Gyles Brandreth and his absence sparked health concerns.
When introducing the show, Brandreth said: “After 50 years at the helm, [he] quite rightly thinks he should be allowed a day off.”
In 2019 Parsons was give a Broadcasting Press Guild (BPG) award for his outstanding contribution to broadcasting. BPG chairman Jake Kanter said of Parsons: “His warmth, sharp wit and clearheaded determination in rooms full of fast-talking show offs have kept him at the top of his game.”
Parsons married his second wife Ann Reynolds in 1995, and had two children, Suzy and Justin, from his first marriage to Denise Bryer.