Just a Minute Just a Minute Just a Minute is a BBC Radio 4 radio comedy and television panel game chaired by Nicholas Parsons. Its first transmission on Radio 4 was on 22 December 1967, three months after the station's launch. The Radio 4 programme won a Gold Sony Radio Academy Award in 2003. The object of the game is for panellists to talk for sixty seconds on a given subject, "without hesitation, repetition or deviation". The comedy comes from attempts to keep within these rules and the banter among the participants. In 2011 comedy writer David Quantick ascribed "Just a Minute"'s success
Ian Messiter Ian Messiter Ian Cassan Messiter (2 April 1920 – 22 November 1999) was a BBC Radio producer and the creator of a number of panel games, including "Just a Minute", and "Many a Slip". Messiter also brought the successful "Twenty Questions" format to BBC Radio. He was also the Programme Associate on "Family Fortunes". Messiter was born in Dudley, Worcestershire and educated at Sherborne School in Dorset. He acted as whistle blower on both "One Minute Please" and "Just a Minute". He appeared in the first series of the BBC science-fiction quiz show "The Adventure Game" in 1980 as the