Unscripted, immaculate Nicholas Parsons dies at age 96
Nicholas Parsons was a true veteran of the stage, screen and airwaves with a career which spanned more than half a century.
He clocked up numerous acting and comedy parts, but he was best known for his years as question master of TV quiz Sale Of The Century and for his role as host of BBC Radio 4’s Just A Minute, which he was still presenting well into his 90s.
Yesterday, his agent Jean Diamond issued a statement on behalf of his family confirming that the radio icon had died at the age of 96, prompting an outpouring of tributes from the cream of British entertainment.
“Oh no,” Stephen Fry tweeted. “Nicholas Parsons gone? He ruled Just a Minute for Just a Lifetime. A stunning achievement: never scripted, always immaculate.”
TV host and Just A Minute panellist Graham Norton called Parsons “the kindest and most generous person I’ve ever worked with,” while Gyles Brandreth, who stood in for Parsons when he missed his first show in 50 years in 2018, added: “Nicholas Parsons was such a lovely man – and so versatile: actor, entertainer, writer, TV star & radio host without equal, but for me, most of all, friend.”
Despite his glittering CV, Parsons once said he believed he would have got more work if he had been “more rugged-looking”.
Just A Minute was – and still is – one of the best-loved programmes on British radio. First broadcast in December 1967, it invites celebrity guests to talk about a given subject for 60 seconds “without hesitation, repetition or deviation”.
Parsons led the show from its inception until shortly before his death, hosting show regulars such as Sir Clement Freud, Kenneth Williams and Paul Merton, as well as one-off guests – including Prince Charles, who made a cameo on the programme’s 2016 Christmas special.
Parsons was born on October 10 1923, in Grantham, Lincolnshire, where his father was GP to the family of Baroness Thatcher.
