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 significant historical events. He also often wins points by challenging just before the whistle or for humorous challenges, another technique being to say the same word in the singular and the plural, for inexperienced panellists to challenge falsely. Over the 50-year history of the show, there have been many other panellists. Those to have appeared frequently, more than 20 times each, are Pam Ayres, Gyles Brandreth, Marcus Brigstocke, Julian Clary, Alun Cochrane, Charles Collingwood, Barry Cryer, Jenny Eclair, Stephen Fry, Sheila Hancock, Tony Hawks, Kit Hesketh-Harvey, Josie Lawrence, Aimi MacDonald, Andree Melly, Chris Neill, Ross Noble, Graham Norton, Sue Perkins,