Just A Minute - Series 21 Episode 8, 23-06-1988

Eighth episode of the twenty-first series of the BBC Radio 4 comedy panel show Just A Minute, recorded at the Paris Theatre in London and first broadcast on Thursday 23rd June 1988. This episode features regulars Kenneth Williams (in his final appearance), Derek Nimmo, Clement Freud and Peter Jones attempting to speak for just a minute on the following subjects: Getting Uptight, Poppadoms, Witches, A Good Night Out, Chopsticks, Spring, Olive, Choosing A Restaurant, Mumbling, and Ogres.
Kenneth Williams died on 15th April 1988, shortly after the recording of this episode. It was his 344th JAM appearance, having debuted in 1968 and featured in the vast majority of episodes through the twenty years that followed. So close was his association with the show that the BBC considered cancelling Just A Minute in the wake of Kenneth's death; ultimately, the decision to preserve it allowed JAM to embark on a new era.

[@nathelondon3719]

Kenneth Williams, Peter Jones, Clement Freud and Derek Nimmo. A classic lineup. RIP. Where can find FOUR on their level today? You can't!

[@vincentharriman3283]

The closest are when Paul Merton and Gyles Brandreth are on.

[@muhammadomer4674]

Celement was s rapist though

[@marquonuk]

Yes, I was going to suggest Gyles Brandreth. :-)

[@millertas]

In a London Bedsit 83/84 winter trying to save up to travel home to Australia. Would religiously listen to this show on a small transistor radio and once went out to watch a taping. Love these highly talented comedians improvisation. Williams would usually come last but was ALWAYS number one.

[@Dukes-nt1er]

A nice personal memory, we all have them , relating to certain music , tv , radio, and feature films we indulge in..... funny how there"s so much nostalgic gold tied up in memories......................NICE....

[@prince.mushroom]

Lovely

[@seanodea]

I loved this show during the 1980's and used to listen to it I think on BBC Shortwave here in Australia

[@janethalliburton8539]

Utterly brilliant, erudite, hilarious, clever and so very much missed. Thank you for the memories, coming home from school, listening to this before cracking on with the mountains of homework!

[@Nonoatfirst]

A reminder of how much I always laughed listening to this. Thanks. Kenneth Williams' diary is worth a read. He was great in Round the Horn too.

[@errolfellows409]

BRILLIANT! DAMN, I haven't heard this for years and years. MEMORIES!!

[@marks.6480]

I used to listen to this on the BBC World Service back in the 1980's and I loved it.

[@simonlamphee9905]

Totally exquisite show never to be repeated again

[@jessiejames7492]

Ha ha. Kenneths laugh ! Wonderful

[@adrianbeaumont6745]

Thankyou for posting this episode of the classic team of Jones, Nimo,Freud ,Williams and Parsons on fine form.being wonderfully entertaining. Loved it.

[@Tojazzer]

Thank you so much for the upload. It is rather sad, however, to hear our Ken on the decline.

[@ianrichardson8990]

The golden line-up. So poignant that it was the last time. Such fond memories.

[@rickriccled6034]

Very poignant indeed,Kenny was magnificent and how lucky the show was to find Paul Merton fairly quickly and to lead in the new generation of comedians to the show.

[@rnw2739]

Hardly.....Merton is excrement compared to Williams as cream.

[@chrisjones6542]

Great! Thanks for this.

[@jessiejames7492]

One can easily buy pappadums frm grocery shops these days. Have to fry ourselves. Can get them ready made to eat at indian food shops

[@patronusstag]

How are people saying that Paul Merton replaced KW? He doesn't bring half of the brilliance that KW brought to the show.

[@douglaslawrence2451]

Increadable song by great singer.. with beautifull dancers..and actors...love the girl who plays Cybill.....very talented and beautifull

[@jeremypreece870]

Wow, even the creator of the show, Ian Messiter was here. This must truly be the very last of the original JAM. Every single one of them has now passed and yet the show still has managed to survive and move on. I suppose that a really simple idea can just keep running, like for example Desert Island Disks.

[@Omnicient.]

Interesting to note how nobody picked up Clements repetitions at 23 seconds in where he again repeats Dordogne and much of what he had said earlier. At around 25 seconds Peter Jones imitating method acting film stars and Brando in particular 'on the other hand' is hardly a phrase Brando in and out of character would say! Though it was one of the best minutes of JAM topped off beautifully by Derek 'we better tell people not to adjust their sets'!

[@mc-ec3bu]

Oh and how the memories come flooding back. I really shouldn't listen to them it makes me so sad.

[@barleyarrish]

time fly's when your enjoying yourself...

[@Edward1312]

No inkling here that Williams was about to take his life, so provides further evidence that his death was an accident rather than deliberate.

[@PetroicaRodinogaster264]

How they ever understood what Williams was saying I don’t know in order to question him.

[@davidmorgan2042]

Have you got a recording of all 344 of KW's appearances? In this last one he seems on top form. What a loss. Freud was always extremely dull, Nimmo and Jones were often very funny, but could hardly match KW and Parsons obviously liked him, as he almost always "gives him the benefit of the doubt".

[@spartakistmk2557]

I've got all but four of KW's appearances. For all that he was (and still is) celebrated for his camp Carry On style of comedy, JAM also demonstrated what an astonishingly erudite man he was on a huge number of subjects, and in his heyday he had audiences in the palm of his hand. I agree that this was a barnstorming final performance to go out on, especially as he'd been a shadow of himself for a few years prior to this. The one-liner about taking Nicholas Parsons "up the back alleys" is so perfectly delivered, it never fails to make me laugh.

[@jonkiparsky7369]

@@spartakistmk2557 Spot on. I've very much appreciated hearing these older episodes, and it seems to me that the Williams/Parsons duo - with Parsons as the perfect straight man - is one of the great partnerships in comedy. Thanks for your posts.

[@davidmorgan2042]

@@spartakistmk2557 It has been a delight to listen to the early ones I never heard and those from the eighties which I could only very vaguely recall listening to; I didn't start listening to R4 till I was a student. Like most people I first encountered KW through Carry On, at an age when I was too young to get all the innuendo; I liked him in Spying, Jack and of course Cleo and Screaming; the latter with the two best jokes of all-time, infamy, in for me and frying tonight! He was also great friends with Sheila Hancock, whom he constantly has fun mocking on the show.

[@Sam-gw5pl]

Kenneth sounds quite irritable at times here, more so than usual. Must have been his health troubles.

[@MaskedMan66]

7:54 Well, there's always repetition with curry, isn't there?

[@Dukes-nt1er]

I am afraid, NEVER mind what the coroner said, in 1988, An open Verdict....... No sorry, come on the facts were there in front of us.... Williams took his own life for certain.... he just had, enough of the physical pain inside him, and do not forget , he often , in interviews spoke of , and toyed with the idea of Suicide anyway, AND in his diaries........ By this time...He had just had enough of it all..............!!!

[@EnglishmanInLdn]

I agree. You can sense some of the unhappiness here, in my opinion. I mean he's funny and entertaining but there's an edge to his contributions. "Oh, what's the bloody point?" By the way, the date here is wrong. Williams died in April 1988.

[@simoneast1973]

Is Nicholas Parsons calling them “pompadoms”?

[@davidsanderson5918]

Many people did. Including John Shuttleworth.

[@marquonuk]

It wasn't just a slip, either. He pronounces it that way at least twice. :-)

[@jonb6417]

I always thought that Freud spoiled these programmes, but I never met him. Was he a smug as he sounded?

[@vincentharriman3283]

Yes, to a certain extent. If I recall he didn't get on very well with Kenneth Williams. Incidentally years later his daughter Emma Freud appeared on JAM.

[@georgielancaster1356]

I have to say that I was always told that Prairie Oysters were very young calf testicles. Or 3 or 6 month lamb testicles. The size of adult bulls and rams testes seems far too big to be served. I gather they were covered in spices, etc but saying they were eggs seems to be very euphemistic. I gather it is a USA thing.

[@davids8449]

What a load of Bullocks

[@georgielancaster1356]

@@davids8449 It's a comment that testes the imagination - and one's appetite.

[@meirwise1107]

As a Jew, Clement Freud should not have been eating ham. I would have challenged for deviation!

[@pr4442]

I do believe he got up to far more indiscretions than eating pork.

[@stephenguppy8886]

Eating pork is the least of the things that Freud got up to.

[@splinterbyrd]

Tragic. KW sounds awful. His death was avoidable, but when the doctors wanted him to come in to hospital for surgery he prevaricated. Moral; never argue with the experts.

[@GUITARTIME2024]

It was suicide. His health issues wore him down.

[@splinterbyrd]

@@GUITARTIME2024 No evidence it was suicide.

[@GUITARTIME2024]

@@splinterbyrd his diary and the pills on his nightstand beg to differ. He was dreading the surgury coming up and getting tired of his health issues, especially as a bachelor.

[@Thecarman1994]

Everyone was so normal in the olden days, not like the weirdos today ????

[@Johanna.EG.]

Oh, you have NOT read about Clement Freud.

[@Thecarman1994]

@@Johanna.EG. hello Johanna, I was being a little tongue in cheek. They've ALL been VERY weird ! 👍

[@carolinemcgovern8059]

RIP, RIG.

[@simoneast1973]

Peter Jones - voice of The Book

[@PicRic]

I was an avid fan.

[@meirwise1107]

Kenneth Williams was unique, unequaled and irreplaceable. With his demise the program began to decline. Paul Merton is no replacement. Sorry.

[@splinterbyrd]

Totally agree. When I heard KW had died I was surprised _Just A Minute_ was continued, as without him it seemed pointless.

[@rnw2739]

Paul Merton is talentless in my opinion and his pathetic, rehearsed deadpan expression and constant, vacant stares to the audience as if to say 'What they laughing at?' is cringe worthy to witness.