32 Uniquely Awesome Business Card Designs

32 Uniquely Awesome Business Card Designs

Something you might want to look into in the near future.

The true story behind Just A minute

The true story behind Just A minute

Just A Minute, the radio show, has been running since December 1967 and the simple delight of having amusing people trying to talk for 60 seconds on a given subject, "without repetition, hesitation or deviation" has made it one of the most popular shows of all time. Its host, Nicholas Parsons, has fronted the Radio 4 programme since it was launched. The wonderful guests down the years have included Kenneth Williams (who used to shout "I'm a cult - I'm one of the biggest cults you'll get round 'ere!"), John Cleese, Clement Freud and Willie Rushton. But in recent years, Paul Merton has been a constant delight and Ross Noble's flights of fancy are perfect for the show. And Linda Smith was a joy whenever she used to appear as a guest on the show. But the origins of the programme - now nearly 700 shows old - are amusing in themselves. 
Creator Ian Cassan Messiter, who died in 1999 at the age of 79, had been invalided out of the Army having fought at the Normandy Landing. He tried his hand at being a conjurer before joining the BBC as a Programme Assistant. It was the embarrassing incident he remembered from his days at Sherborne School that sparked the idea for the show. During a dull lesson on Henry VIII, Messiter was caught day-dreaming by a history teacher called Percival Parry-Jones. The teacher yelled: "Messiter! Repeat what I have been saying for the last two minutes, without hesitation or repetition." When the 13-year-old failed, he was caned in front of the class. "It was a humiliating experience but it changed my life," Messiter later admitted.
Messiter, being a kindly man, reduced it to a minute's talking when he came up with the idea in 1949 for a programme called One Minute Please. The BBC initially rejected his idea. When Messiter left in 1952 to join a commercial station in Johannesburg, it was there that the adapted Just A Minute was broadcast for the first time. Away from Britain he had refined the format of his quiz idea - adding a rule against deviating from a given subject. 
When he returned to Britain two years later, the BBC again declined to buy the Just A Minute format, so Messiter sold it to the Dumont television station in the US. It was the first British game show seen in America, was broadcast nationally and attracted many American celebrities. The reaction of the BBC was to claim the rights and fees for itself because Messiter had been working for them when he had conceived the idea. They gave him a one-off cheque for £50, which he donated to the BBC Benevolent Fund. He persisted with the idea and in 1967, the show finally got off the ground when it was first broadcast on Radio 4. Parsons was not even the first choice. The BBC originally wanted Jimmy Edwards as chairman but he was unavailable. Parsons took the hot seat and has kept it for nearly 45 years. 
A 10-part television series is being commissioned for 2012 on BBC2. There were short-lived versions on ITV and the BBC during the 1990s but, this time, Paul Merton will be involved so an amusing time is pretty much guaranteed. Whether Just a Minute reaches a new, appreciative audience through television this time remains to be seen. But even if doesn't, you can be sure - and I say this without repetition, hesitation or deviation - there should always be a place for it on radio.

Edited from an article in The Telegraph.