Just A Minute creator’s heir demands no deviation on BBC favourite

There can be no repetition but there is undoubtedly some hesitation in unveiling the future of the BBC’s best-loved and longest-running radio programme, Just A Minute.

The BBC tells me that its special radio 4 tribute to late presenter Nicholas Parsons on what would have been his 97th birthday — October 10 — will be celebrating his career and life and the programme.

But there will be no announcement about the identity of Parsons’s successor, nor, indeed, about whether the programme even has a future.

This is a cause of concern for Malcolm Messiter, who owns the show devised by his father Ian. JAM made its debut in 1967, with Parsons chairing a panel of four contestants.

‘Malcolm’s very protective of Just A Minute and doesn’t want it to fall victim to the woke brigade,’ a family friend tells me. ‘Nicholas is a tough act to follow and he wants a worthy host to succeed him.

‘The truth is Messiter could take the show elsewhere if he doesn’t like the BBC’s choice of successor.’

Malcolm Messiter, 71, a professional oboist, admits he’s taking an intense interest in the programme’s fate and does not want the format changed.

‘I owe it to my father,’ Malcolm, who has attended the recording of almost every episode, tells me.

‘The subjects about which they [the panellists] must talk can be absolutely anything. I contribute these myself, and they are unavoidably contemporary.’

Parsons presented the show for 52 years, barely missing an episode until his health began to falter in the months before his death, aged 96, in January this year.

Guests are invited to talk on a subject for one minute without hesitation, repetition and deviation.

The irrepressible Gyles Brandreth, who deputised for Parsons on two occasions in 2018, is tipped as a possible successor.

Others include Kit heskethharvey and Miles Jupp.

hesketh-harvey tells me the successful candidate should be ‘unflappable, unshockable, in the tradition of humphrey Lyttelton, Kenneth horne and Nicholas [Parsons], like a minor headmaster of a minor public school dealing with the naughty schoolboys pitching themselves against Auntie BBC’.