Event 5, Corn Exchange 3rd June 2011

 

Veteran broadcaster Nicholas Parsons revealed to a Devizes audience that he never wanted to be the chairman of the radio game show that has made him a household name for the last 44 years.

Mr Parsons, a sprightly 87, held the stage for over two hours at the Corn Exchange on Friday night, sharing his reminiscences of a life full of incident and achievement.
In some ways his chairmanship of Just A Minute was the worst thing he ever did as his role as butt of the humour of the four panelists hides his many and varied talents.
But they were on show for all to see on Friday. Born in Grantham in 1923, where he was a school chum of Margaret Thatcher, his promising academic career was cut short when war broke out in 1939 and he found himself apprenticed to an engineering firm in Clydebank.
Although his Home Counties accent would have assured him of his fair share of bullying and teasing, his unfailing good humour and talent to amuse won him many friends.
He auditioned for talent scout Carol Levis and found himself onstage at the Glasgow Empire, the graveyard of many an English comic, eliciting the cheers of his fellow apprentices for his impersonations.
As a native Glaswegian I can verify the accuracy of his impersonations of his fellow workers, which were spot on.
Seconded to the Merchant Navy, malnutrition and overwork led to a physical collapse and he was invalided home.
He told his parents he wanted to be an actor and, after a spell in weekly rep, he landed a job as stand-up comic at the legendary Windmill Theatre, with its unclothed tableaux vivants.
When ITV started up in 1955 he was brought in to help save the appalling variety show Strike a New Note. Only he and comic Arthur Haynes survived, establishing a working relationship that continued until Haynes’s premature death a few years later.
Spells in the West End starring in the farce Boeing Boeing and various TV shows were interspersed by the launch of a new show on BBC Radio 4 in 1967.
Mr Parsons remembered: “I was going to be on the panel and Jimmy Edwards was to be the chairman. But Jimmy was not free to record the pilot so I was imposed upon to be chairman.
“I never wanted to be chairman. I didn’t think I was right for it. But here we are 44 years later and I’m still doing it.
“I think it is because of still doing the show that my memory remains as good as it is.”
After the show, Mr Parsons signed copies of his memoirs.

Lewis Cowen