Nicholas Parsons 4 June 2018 (when regular guest Gyles Brandreth replaced him for 2 episodes), and has presented the show in six different decades. The programme's longevity is arguably due in part to the host's ability to be a chairman, create laughs and to act as a straight man to the comedians who participate. In the 1950s, Parsons provided the non-singing voice of Tex Tucker in the children's TV puppet series "Four Feather Falls" at the suggestion of his then wife, actress and voiceover artiste Denise Bryer, who was in the show. During the late 1960s he created and presented a satirical
Nicholas Parsons West End, further starring in the revival the following year. He then toured with the production intermittently from 1994-1996. In April 2005 he was the guest presenter on the BBC comedy news show "Have I Got News for You" and over the next decade guested on many other television shows as a speaker and an entertainer including as Father Gorman in "Marple: The Pale Horse" and "Celebrity Mastermind" in December 2007. "Just a Minute" transferred to television in 2012 for a ten-part early-evening series to celebrate its 45th anniversary, with Parsons and regular panellist Paul Merton. Parsons wrote an autobiography