Minute

For over 30 years on the radio (and for one series on TV) Nicholas Parsons has presented Just A Minute. In this simple, but difficult game the guests have to talk on a given subject for 60 seconds without hesitation, repetition or deviation.

There is a text version of a Just A Minute round below

You can listen to a different "Just A Minute" round by clicking here

Warning: Of all the material on this site this is probably the one that is least suited to the manuscript form.

Nicholas Parsons	It's my pleasure to welcome the four exciting, talented and individual players of Just A Minute who have joined us for this show. We are delighted to welcome back an individual and exciting comedian Paul Merton and also a lovable and outrageous comedian Graeme Norton and a talented comedian Richard Morton and the distinctive and multifaceted humourist Clement Freud. Please welcome all four of them. We will begin the show with Clement Freud and the subject is "A Can of Worms."
Clement Freud	A can of worms is a gastronomic item which has to date escaped me. I wonder really whether lug worms shouldn't really get a better press than they do. Worms in common with head lice, dung beetles and cockroaches are allowed... (BUZZER)
Paul Merton	Hesitation.
Nicholas Parsons	I agree with the hesitation so Paul you take over the subject with 39 seconds left.
Paul Merton	I had to take back a tin of baked beans to the supermarket the other day because it was well past it's sell-by date. I opened it up and there was a load of maggots inside it. I said "This is a can of worms you're selling me here !" They said: "Well what do you expect, there's more meat in it than you'd normally get." I said: "Listen here I'm gonna start a fight." So I did and I took them to court and I won. Several years after that I found myself walking through the district of Paisley which is, as you know, near Glasgow and I was wandering around when suddenly a man came out of the shadows holding a can of worms. He gesticulated to me in a strange manner and I was tempted to follow him down these labyrinths, these dark alleyways into a very strange area where I suddenly saw the worms buried (WHISTLE BLOWS)
Nicholas Parsons	Well done. Paul Merton not only took the subject, but took it at pace. Paul we'd like you to take the next round. The subject "Black Comedy."
Paul Merton	It's a particular form of humour Black Comedy that looks at the darker side of life. One prime example of this would be the Mel Brooks film "Young Frankenstein" made in the 1970s that featured the monster recreated by the mad Doctor and there was a rather charming graveyard sequence I seem to remember that was rather fun. Marty Feldman (BUZZER)
Richard Morton	Repetition of "rather". He rather did it twice.
Paul Merton	Really ? That's not like me.
Nicholas Parsons	Richard Morton you have a correct challenge. 38 seconds available starting now.
Richard Morton	Black Comedy of course is very big in Scotland with many comedians like Chic Murray from Glasgow coming out with marvelous, macabre, dark sort of jokes, putting them into his stand up act and making them very successful. Scottish audiences of course like dark comedy (BUZZER)
Clement Freud	Repetition of "Of Course".
Nicholas Parsons	Oh yes ! Clement you have 24 seconds on "Black Comedy".
Clement Freud	I like Bill Cosby best... (BUZZER)
Paul Merton	Hesitation.
Nicholas Parsons	Yes. 19 seconds available, starting now.
Paul Merton	There is a production that tours round the country called "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and our chairman Nicholas Parsons was once desperate enough to appear in it in a pair of fishnet stockings where he would parade around on stage in front of people who had paid good money to see this and he would regale them with what he liked to think was his whimsy. (WHISTLE BLOWS)
Nicholas Parsons	We have some "Rocky Horror" fans in the audience actually. It's "Black Comedy" with black tights, black fishnets and high heel shoes, but that's only for the finale.
Paul Merton	That's what he wears going to the theatre !