Just A Minute blog

A blog on the BBC radio programme Just A Minute

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Location: Wellington, New Zealand

February 13, 2015

David Tennant's first

David Tennant has received a fair bit of attention for going the full 60 seconds without interruption in his first appearance.

Nicholas Parsons declared it on air to be a first.

 He has since written an article about the feat in the Daily Mail.

Julian Clary has written this article about it and also writes entertainingly about his own JAM debut.

The BBC's PM show did a bit on it at the end of its programme the next day - listen here, there are three bits, one at 22-30 in where we hear a Kenneth Williams minute, one at 36-10 where we hear a Sheila Hancock minute, and one at 56-50 we hear a Clement Freud minute.

And both the BBC and the Telegraph have written nice articles about the achievement.

And of course it IS a big thing to do.

But sadly, it is NOT a first.

Here is a list of players who went the full 60 seconds in their first appearance on radio Just A Minute

-  Andree Melly (1968), Aimi Macdonald (1968), Fenella Fielding (1969), Joan Turner (1970), Katharine Whitehorn (1970), Liz Fraser (1970), Thora Hird (1976), June Whitfield (1978), Kenny Everett (1980), John Junkin (1980), Stanley Unwin (1987), Christopher Timothy (1988), Graham Norton (1996), Charles Collingwood (2001), and Pam Ayres (2003).

Of these, Katharine Whitehorn, Liz Fraser, Thora Hird, John Junkin, Stanley Unwin, Christopher Timothy, Graham Norton, Charles Collingwood, and Pam Ayres were speaking on the first time they'd been given a subject, like Tennant. (ie, the others had already started a subject earlier in the show.)

And Katharine Whitehorn, Thora Hird, Stanley Unwin, Christopher Timothy, and Pam Ayres were speaking for the first time on any subject, like David Tennant. (ie, the others had already successfully challenged someone else and taken over a subject mid-round.)

If we include the various TV versions, we must take out Graham Norton and Pam Ayres as they both debuted on TV. But we must add in Isla Blair (1999), who also achieved it on her first time speaking at all.

None of this is meant to detract from an amazing performance by David Tennant. But it is NOT an unprecedented performance.




2 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

Does Elaine Strich count?
http://just-a-minute.info/jam529.html
She had already spoken on another subject and sadly she had been interrupted, but incorrectly, so that's hardly her fault.

6:37 am  
Blogger Dean said...

if you get interrupted, it's not a complete 60 second round.

5:34 pm  

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