In praise of ‘Just a Minute’

Oh boy, do I love my radio. I certainly spend more time listening to radio than TV and the purchase of a Pure Evoke-3 just over a year ago revolutionised things for me. Besides easily reviewing what’s on over the next week and timer recording all programmes that sound interesting to an SD card, I can save the best to my PC to listen again in the future.

The best by far is on BBC Radio 4. I’ve included links to a few of those I’ve most enjoyed below. My absolute favourite is a good episode of Just a Minute. Paul Merton is extremely funny, but you can’t beat Gyles Brandreth on a flight of fancy, double entrendres spilling out all over the place. So it should be no surprise my favourite comedian appears in both the Just a Minute clips below.

The game is extremely simple in concept and derives from when a daydreaming Ian Messiter was asked by a schoolteacher to repeat everything his teacher had said in the last minute without hesitation or repetition. To this Messiter added deviation to create the panel game that has been running for three decades under the chairmanship of Nicholas Parsons.

If you haven’t heard the programme before treat yourself by clicking on one of the links below and then selecting ‘Download’… there may be a few seconds of BBC intros or news on some clips.

'Just a Minute' with Gyles Brandreth, Paul Merton and Graham Norton

‘Just a Minute’ with Gyles Brandreth, Paul Merton and Pam Ayres

‘Anatomy of a Car Crash’… listen to this to ensure you drive more carefully in future!

‘I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue’ with Jack Dee

‘I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue’ with Rob Brydon

This week the focus has been on making bird boxes for our allotment association’s wildlife and coffee morning on Sunday. I’ve got a left arm like Popeye’s after cutting up wood for fifteen bird box kits. The idea is members will make them up themselves on the day. We’ve also got boxes for bigger birds made up and members will make bug bedsits. Add to that a treasure hunt for kids and the promise of a warm sunny day and it looks like being a lot of fun. I might round it off with a barbeque lunch on the plot for the family accompanied by home brew wine.

Bit of a disaster on the competitions front. Lost again to David at squash, so I’ve got to win the remaining four matches this month just to draw. Lost the pool/darts to David as well. Still the pitch and putt champion, see how I get on this afternoon against the sons.

Had a great walk across the fields to Woodhurst yesterday morning with Linda. The village is tiny and most people visit only to drive through on their way to somewhere else… and yet it’s one of the best examples in England of a Saxon ringed village. So the footpaths we followed across the fields have been used for centuries as villagers walked to St Ives for the markets. You can find the details of this walk along with others at Cambridgeshire Walks.

Off to Hunstanton next week for a few days on a caravan, weather looks really promising. So the next post is likely to be a bit late. Lots of images below.