Unscripted, immaculate Nicholas Parsons dies at age 96

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.

After studying at St Paul’s School in London, he headed to Clydebank as an apprentice engineer, despite his own hopes of becoming an actor.

But his impressions were featured in a radio show and, following performances with amateur concert parties after the Second World War, he moved into acting – working in rep at Bromley in Kent.

Comic roles proved to be a speciality and he became resident comedian at the Windmill Theatre in London after working on the cabaret circuit in the 1950s.

He found TV fame appearing with comic Arthur Haynes in his ITV show in the early 1960s, and he was also a regular on The Benny Hill Show.

At the tail end of 1967, he introduced Just A Minute for the first time – and the show is still going strong today.

Within a few years, he had also become known for hosting ITV’s Sale Of The Century, with its notable opening line “And now from Norwich, it’s the quiz of the week ...” which launched as a regional show in 1971, and was broadcast nationally by 1975.

Parsons had guest roles in Doctor Who, children’s series Bodger And Badger, as well as taking a cross-dressing role in a touring production of The Rocky Horror Show in his 70s, and performing a number of seasons with his one-man shows at the Edinburgh Festival.

In 1990, he starred in London’s West End in Stephen Sondheim’s musical Into The Woods, and his autobiography The Straight Man – My Life in Comedy was published in 1994.

He was a regular guest on television and radio comedy shows, and in 1999 he took his comedy chat show The Nicholas Parsons Happy Hour to the Edinburgh Festival, returning to the event in years that followed.

Notable projects include The Arthur Haynes Show, Carry On Regardless, and Cluedo, and he starred in West End comedies Boeing Boeing, Say Who You Are, as well as musicals and revues.

His first major success on television was as the straight man to Haynes in the famous partnership that flourished in the 1960s, and included Swing Along, a season in 1963 at the London Palladium.

Among his many charitable commitments, he had a long association with the Grand Order of Water Rats and the Lord’s Taverners, for which he has served as president.

Parsons said he was “flattered and delighted” to be awarded a CBE for his charitable work in December 2013.

He said at the time that he would save celebrations for his day at the palace, joking that his 90th had been enthusiastically marked.

“I received the letter two months ago and was told to keep quiet about it or it might be taken away so my wife and I kept quiet about it,” he revealed, adding that his 90th birthday celebrations had kept him busy.

“We won’t be celebrating until the day we go to the palace - I’ve done so much celebrating for my 90th birthday this year,” he said. Ten years previously, Parsons had received an OBE for services to drama and broadcasting.

On June 4 2018, he missed his first ever episode of Just A Minute after 50 years at the helm and more than 900 instalments, having reportedly contracted flu.

He was replaced by regular panellist Gyles Brandreth and his absence sparked concerns for his health.

However, the BBC’s head of radio comedy explained that Parsons was “taking a couple of days off”.

When introducing the show, Brandreth said: “After 50 years at the helm, [he] quite rightly thinks he should be allowed a day off.”

In 2019 Parsons was given a Broadcasting Press Guild (BPG) award for his outstanding contribution to broadcasting.

BPG chairman Jake Kanter said of Parsons: “His warmth, sharp wit and clear-headed determinations in rooms full of fast-talking show offs have kept him at the top of his game.”

Parsons married his second wife Ann Reynolds in 1995, and had two children from his first marriage to Denise Bryer.