History Radio / JustAMinute

A [[Creator/TheBBC British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4]] comedy PanelGame which has been broadcast since 22 December 1967 and is hosted by Nicholas Parsons, who has appeared in every single episode since its inception. It began in the year that Radio 4 launched, and...

-->'''Nicholas Parsons''': ReportSiht has challenged.
-->'''ReportSiht''': "Radio 4" twice.

-->'''Nicholas Parsons''': ReportSiht, it is your turn to begin the next round, our next topic, something you may or may not have heard of, ''Wiki/TVTropes''. Will you talk on that subject for sixty seconds as usual, starting now...

-->'''Nicholas Parsons''': ReportSiht, it is your turn to begin the next round, our next topic, something you may or may not have heard of, ''TvTropesWiki''. Will you talk on that subject for sixty seconds as usual, starting now...

* NiceGuy: Nicholas is always hugely complimentary to all the panellists (and gets [[TakeThat viciously lampooned]] for it by Jack Dee in the "Just A Minim" rounds of rival show ''Radio/ImSorryIHaventAClue''). However, there is the occasional instance where he returns their affectionate ribbing, or when things start getting...
* NoJustNoReaction: From the BBC TV series, on the topic of the host himself.
--> '''Sue Perkins''': There is nothing so erotic as the sight of Nicholas Parsons...
--> ''[Paul Merton [[YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe holds down the buzzer]], shaking his head and mouthing "no"]''
--> '''Sue Perkins''': Intervention! Intervention! ...I've done it again Paul, I've done it again.
--> ''[Paul nods, as Sue facepalms.]''
--> '''Paul Merton''': There are limits, aren't there.
** It's made even funnier if you know that Sue is actually a lesbian.

* LoopholeAbuse: There's actually nothing stopping you from buzzing during your own time, challenging yourself for a mistake before anyone else can, and winning a point ''whether the challenge is accepted or not''. This is only allowed [[RuleOfFunny because it's funny when it happens]], and no-one takes the game seriously enough to really abuse it.
** If somebody gets the subject with only a few seconds remaining, a common tactic is to just repeat the subject on the card over and over again before the whistle goes.

* MemeticSexGod: In-universe, a RunningGag is for players (especially female ones) to imply that Nicholas is this [[HiddenDepths when the cameras aren't running]]. He played this up himself when he guest hosted ''HaveIGotNewsForYou''. [[invoked]]

[[caption-width-right:316:The regular personnel from the early years. Clockwise from top left: Clement Freud, Derek Nimmo, Kenneth Williams, Nicholas Parsons, Ian Messiter.]]

A large number of people have appeared on the show, but there have been five "regular" players over the course of its history: Kenneth Williams, Derek Nimmo, Peter Jones, Clement Freud and Paul Merton...

* TheCastShowoff: Kenneth Williams would often be given subjects that allowed him to show off his knowledge of history.

** Sweden has had its own version, ''På Minuten'', going for almost as long as the UK version (albeit with a six-year hiatus from 1988-94). There are some slight rules differences, with deviation being treated more leniently, while repetition of multiple forms of the same word (such as using both the singular and plural of a noun) is not permitted but repetition either side of being challenged and/or losing the subject ''is'' allowed. The panellists have also played for prizes since 2004, usually some sort of ForeignQueasine (which has led to many panellists trying to ''avoid'' winning at all costs).

[[quoteright:316:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/6faee943ecbf07f568c67373caa1b0fe.JPG]]

** Sweden has had its own version, ''På Minuten'', going for almost as long as the UK version (albeit with a six-year hiatus from 1988-94).

* InMemoriam: ''Just a Minute'' has included tributes to each of the four original regular panellists following their deaths.
** The 5 May 1988 episode, the first to air after the death of Kenneth Williams a few weeks earlier (but which had been recorded before his death), was introduced by the Radio 4 continuity announcer as a tribute to his memory.
** Nicholas Parsons introduced the 1 March 1999 episode as a tribute to Derek Nimmo, who had died a few days before the episode aired; Nicholas noted that the episode's recording a few months earlier had been Derek's last professional appearance.
** A summer re-run of the 17 January 2000 episode was dedicated to the memory of Peter Jones, who had died earlier in the year and one of whose last professional appearances had been for the recording of the episode in question.
** At the end of the 27 July 2009 episode, Nicholas introduced an audio clip of Clement Freud, who had died the previous spring, speaking on the subject "How I hope my epitaph will read" from the 29 January 2001 episode as a tribute to his memory:
--->'''Clement Freud:''' I think just my name, the date of my death, and the words "Best before".[[note]] Which is, indeed, how his death was listed in the programme for his funeral service.[[/note]]

** In an episode of the 2012 television series, the opening subject was "Pardon my French", and the opening speaker was Gyles Brandreth - who, as a young boy, attended the Lycée Français de Londre, and took the opportunity to show off his fluency in the language. When Tony Hawks successfully challenged him, he also spoke his first few sentences in (somewhat more hesitant) French, and even Nicholas joined in (although, in contrast to Gyles and Tony, Nicholas' French was not subtitled as it was a mixture of French and gibberish).

* LargeHam: Many panellists have moments of this, since overacting is seen as an easy way to deliver a small number of words in a manner that eats up a lot of time, or a good way to get laughs from the audience; all of the original regulars except for [[DeadpanSnarker Clement Freud]] had many ham moments in different categories:

** Derek Nimmo would often get very loud and animated if he got a subject, though unlike Kenneth Williams he would often talk extremely quickly and eventually get buzzed for repetition or "deviation from the English language" if he spoke too quickly to understand. Paul Merton has carried on this tradition, especially if he gets a subject with five seconds or less left on the clock.
** Peter Jones shared Derek's tendency to get loud and animated, but almost exclusively when he was arguing with Nicholas or the other panellists over a point of procedure; when he had the subject, he tended to speak more slowly and deliberately.

-->'''Paul Merton:''' The microphones weren't working particularly well when we did the sound-check for this particular programme, but now they're... (goes silent for several seconds) ... and there was half a pound of mince left at the end of the evening!

''Just a Minute'' is one of the station's longest running programs, with over 800 episodes as of 2013, and it won a Gold Sony Radio Academy Award in 2003. It has been adapted for television thrice; for {{ITV}} in 1994, the [[Creator/TheBBC Beeb]] in 1999 and that same corporation again in 2012 for the forty-fifth anniversary.

-->'''Nicholas Parsons''': So Trope-tan was speaking as the whistle went, gained that extra point. That was a good round, lady and gentlemen. Trope-tan, congratulations, that was some [[WikiMagic fast speaking back there.]]

* HypocriticalHumour: Kenneth Williams frequently went on tirades complaining about pedantic challenges going against him or about one of the other panellists dominating the show, even though he could be responsible for some very pedantic challenges himself and was by far the most dominant panellist in most of the episodes he recorded.

* LargeHam: Many panellists have moments of this, since overacting is seen as an easy way to deliver a small number of words in a manner that eats up a lot of time. Kenneth Williams practically made an art form out of stretching every single word, while Gyles Brandreth and Graham Norton are among those who have most proudly carried on this tradition. Paul Merton tends to opt for another form of hamming it up by talking very loudly and energetically if he gets a subject with less than five seconds left on the clock.

--->'''Clement Freud:''' Liaison is no more than a relationship between one, two or three, even four, possibly five, maybe six people...
--->''(BUZZ)''
--->'''Nicholas Parsons:''' Paul Merton challenged.
--->'''Paul Merton:''' [[ItMakesSenseInContext Well he's not talking about metalwork]]. Deviation.
--->'''Nicholas Parsons:''' Metalwork's not the subject, liaisons is. You did a metalwork version and the audience loved it, we all loved it. You got both points...
--->'''Paul Merton:''' Repetition of maybe.
--->'''Nicholas Parsons:''' No he didn't say maybe, no, no, he didn't.
--->'''Paul Merton:''' Hesitation.
--->'''Nicholas Parsons:''' Or the fact he wasn't speaking in French? Ah right, 13 seconds still with you Clement starting now.
--->'''Clement Freud:''' ''(speaks in German)''

** A more straightforward adaptation aired for ten episodes in spring of 2012 to celebrate the radio version's 45th anniversary. In contrast to the previous adaptation, the panellists were mostly veterans of the radio version (Paul Merton appeared in every episode). The majority of episodes, however, have featured at least one guest who had never played before, such as Russell Tovey, Jason Manford, Hugh Bonneville, and Stephen Mangan. All of them were either respected comedians, respected actors, or somewhere in-between.

* VerbalTic: Well, Peter Jones frequently started his speeches with "Well..." when he had the subject. This led to many challenges of repetition if he lost a subject and then won it back, only to begin with "Well..." again, and eventually challenges of deviation when he ''didn't'' start a speech with "Well..."

* CastShowoff: Kenneth Williams would often be given subjects that allowed him to show off his knowledge of history.

* BuffySpeak: An often-employed tactic to avoid challenges of repetition is to describe the same concept in increasingly absurd ways. This leads to constructions like "moving-the-boat-through-the-water people"[note]rowers (Lee Simpson)[/note].