Enjoy Celebrity Radio’s Nicholas Parsons Just a Minute Exclusive Life Story Interview…..
Nicholas Parson’s is a national treasure and a British TV, Stage and (most importantly) Radio legend and icon.
His incredible career has made him a household name and he has been described as “the ultimate quiz show host” because of “(his) geniality, clarity of diction and the speed with which he rattled through questions.”
Best known today for his long-standing position as host of the comedy radio game show Just a Minute, Parsons is also famous as the long-term host of Sale of the Century, a show whose audience peaked at over 21 million viewers (a record for an ITV game show).
Nicholas’ new book ‘Welcome To Just A Minute’ is out now….
Enjoy an Exclusive life story interview with Nicholas and Alex Belfield recorded at the BBC….
At the end of World War II, he became a full professional actor. He made his film debut in Master of Bankdam in 1947 and continued his stage career in West End theatre show, with two years in repertory at Bromley, Kent, and later Windsor, Maidstone and Hayes, and played many supporting roles in British films of the 1950s and ’60s.
In 1952, he became a resident comedian at the Windmill Theatre, performing regular nights of stand-up comedy to packed houses. He starred in the West End show Boeing-Boeing for 15 months and later, other West End productions throughout the 1970s.
Parsons became well known to TV audiences during the 1960s as the straight man to comedian Arthur Haynes. They had a successful season at the London Palladium in 1963 and appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in America in 1966.
In the same year, the partnership broke up after ten years at Haynes’s request, allowing Parsons to return to the stage, before becoming a regular on The Benny Hill Show from 1969 to 1974.
After Haynes’ sudden death, Parsons appeared as a personality in his own right on television, including in the long-running Anglia Television quiz show Sale of the Century, broadcast weekly from 1971 to 1984.
Parsons has been the host of the BBC Radio 4 comedy panel game Just a Minute since it was first broadcast on 22 December 1967.
The show continues to be transmitted and Parsons has been heard in every edition 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.
Interview recorded by Alex Belfield for Celebrity Radio at BBC Radio 2 20th 10th 2014
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