TV

Just a Minute host Nicholas Parsons, 95, ready to return to BBC show after fall


The broadcaster said his brain is “working well” and he will be back ensuring that panellists including Paul Merton, Lucy Porter, Ed Byrne and Fred MacAulay speak without hesitation, repetition or deviation “very soon”. Writer Gyles Brandreth stepped in as Just A Minute host after Parsons had to pull out of his Happy Hour show at this summer’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Parsons has hosted more than 930 episodes of the BBC Radio 4 comedy panel game since it started in December 1967 and missed a recording for the first time in April last year because of the flu. 

He revealed a “nasty fall” on the train had set off his latest bout of ill health and he ended up being taken to hospital in August with a bad back. 

He said: “I took on too much work really. I was in Edinburgh for the Festival, doing Just A Minute and other shows around the country but for a man of 95 I was pushing myself too far. 

“That was fine because I’ve got good stamina but I had a nasty fall on the train that set off events which were not very comfortable and landed me in hospital for a bit whilst I recovered. 

“I’m home now recuperating and doing fine. The brain’s working well and I’m looking forward to getting back to work. I’m fully recovered but not strong enough to go back to work just yet but I will be very soon!” 

Parsons, who married his ­second wife Ann in 1995, added: “Annie is just wonderful. She’s a tower of strength. She is awfully good at keeping me going. 

“She’ll say ‘stand up straight, I know you’re weary but stand up’. She pushes me to do my exercises and keep going. She looks after me wonderfully! In show business we keep going…I just kept going a bit too strongly and forgetting that I’m 95 years of age. Most people my age put their feet up and do nothing other than pottering around in the garden. 

“I didn’t respect the years I’ve lived and tried to do too much.” 

He laughed and said that stand-in Brandreth, 71, “pulls my leg mercilessly” and had told Just A Minute listeners that the regular host had hurt his back while “with a masseuse” last month. 

Parsons, awarded a CBE for services to charity in 2014, made his acting debut in 1947 and starred in a string of films and TV series, including The Benny Hill Show and the long-running ITV game show Sale Of The Century. 

 Just A Minute, BBC Radio 4, today at 12.04pm. 



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