CityLife

Parsons' 41-year minute

THERE aren't many media personalities whose careers extend, with any modicum of success, beyond four decades - but then there aren't many broadcasters like Nicholas Parsons.

While most will remember him as the gentleman host of the 1970s game show Sale of the Century, it is his role as 'chairman' of the Radio 4 hit comedy programme Just A Minute - which has been running for an incredible 41 years - that really sets records.

"A lot of people tend to fall off the twig at my age but I keep active by doing exercise and playing golf. The show is still going strong after all these years because it was a brilliantly simple idea, we have fantastic people on the show and we keep it alive by having an inquest at the end of every programme to assess what we can do to keep improving it."

The 84-year-old entertainer is bringing the hit radio show to the Opera House in Manchester on Wednesday and the whole episode will be recorded live for a later broadcast on BBC Radio 4.

And Nicholas' pal Paul Merton will be one of the high-profile panellists charged with speaking on a specified topic for one minute without hesitation, repetition or deviation.

"Paul has the most wonderfully inventive comic brain," Nicholas tells me. "I have huge admiration and respect for him because he is wonderfully creative and a very generous entertainer who often holds back so as not to hog the limelight."

Merton is equally impressed with the skills of the chairman, it seems.

In April 2005, Nicholas became the weekly guest presenter on the BBC news quiz Have I Got News for You, having been turned down some time previously.

Team captain Paul Merton, had put his pal forward for the job and told bosses shortly before they made the decision: "I have two contenders for the job, who represent the best possible choices. One would be Nicholas Parsons. The other would be Bagpuss."

And Nicholas can't wait to come to Manchester with the show.

He says: "I did a season at the Opera House in Manchester in the 1980s when I played in Charlie Girl with Paul Nicholas and Bonnie Langford. I'm really looking forward to coming back.

"Manchester is a city that loves theatre, entertainment and the arts and has done amazingly well to hold on to its big theatres when other towns and cities have lost theirs. It's a city full of culture, too, and it's always lovely to come there."

Just A Minute is at the Opera House on Wednesday, June 11. Tickets for the show are £5 from Ticketmaster on 0844 847 2295 or click here.