Just a Minute unit of time). The recording used for the theme is of David Haines. In 2018, Nicholas Parsons was unable to attend the recording of two editions of the programme as he had the flu. This broke his uninterrupted run of fifty years as a performer on the programme. The episodes were recorded on 1 April 2018 with Gyles Brandreth standing in for Parsons and were broadcast on 4 and 11 June 2018. The panellists are invited, in rotation, to speak for one minute on a given subject (which they are normally not informed of in advance), without "hesitation, repetition or
Just a Minute his days at Sherborne School who, upon seeing the young Messiter daydreaming in a class, instructed him to repeat everything he had said in the previous minute without hesitation or repetition. To this, Messiter added a rule disallowing players from deviating from the subject, as well as a scoring system based on panellists' challenges. The format was first used in "One Minute Please", chaired by Roy Plomley, broadcast on BBC radio between 1951 and 1957. Whilst the fundamental rules were the same, the game was played in two teams of three rather than with four individual contestants. Other early incarnations