Just a minute – am I really in charge of Nicholas Parsons?

The latest series of Just a Minute is the 76^th run of the programme on BBC Radio 4, but the first for producer Matt Stronge. I asked him about the job of steering one of radio’s crown jewels into its 50^th year:

“My job is to not break it,” explains the candid new producer of Just a Minute, BBC Radio 4’s cult comedy panel show. “It’s a 49 year-old programme. I’m not going to go in there and rip it up.”

Just as well. With the 50th anniversary series already in his in-tray for 2017, 34-year old Matt Stronge (former CBBC writer, BBC Three comedy pilot producer and BBC Radio comedy producer of two years) has been entrusted with one of BBC radio’s best-loved shows.

For the uninitiated, Just a Minute, presented since launch by Nicholas Parsons, requires each of four panellists to speak for 60 seconds on a given topic without hesitation, deviation or repetition. Points are awarded for speaking when the minute whistle blows or by interrupting a speaker with a correct challenge. Straightforward it sounds, easy it’s not, hilarious it often is.

So what’s it like keeping JAM, as its legions of fans worldwide call it, on the road? More to the point, what’s it like producing a stable of panellists that includes the likes of Paul Merton, Graham Norton and Stephen Fry, and being the warm-up guy for JAM’s venerable chairman, 92 year-old Parsons?

Perhaps surprisingly, Stronge says: “It’s fairly relaxed. Basically I come up with the subjects, think up the best mix of guests and book them. Actually, that last bit is quite a delicate process because the panel has to work well together but contain different voices. The chemistry among the cast has to be right.”

The first male producer of the show in some years also has a limited pool of new talent to recruit from: “If you’ve ever tried to speak fluently for a minute you’ll know how hard it is. It takes a special talent to do that, off the cuff, and be funny, in front of a live audience.”

Stronge might not be about to “rip up” the tried and tested formula, but in his first series (now on air) he has already managed to introduce new panellists, including Canadian comedian Katherine Ryan, stand-up Zoe Lyons and improvised comedy specialist Pippa Evans.

“We also had writer Will Self, who talked really slowly - possibly borderline ‘cheating’ - and was successfully challenged by veteran panellist Shelia Hancock,” Stronge says. Nish Kumar, who presents Radio 4 Extra’s Newsjack, another of Stronge’s shows, and who had appeared once on JAM before, was another “newcomer” to the cast of the 76th series.

“I’ll listen to suggestions from Nicholas and panel regulars, of course, but I pretty much have a free hand to try out new people.” Only one new person per show, he cautions, so regulars can keep things afloat if anything goes wrong. Again, perhaps surprisingly, first time panellists - “always very nervous” - aren’t rehearsed, they go straight to record.

What’s not surprising, Stronge points out, is that most of the new voices and faces are female: “Ideally, we’d like a 50/50 gender mix. We only managed that for two of the episodes in this series, although there is always a woman on the panel.” The new producer is casting around to get more women on the team as regulars and promises still more “diversity of voices” (though no names yet) in series 77 next year.

‘Regulars’ currently include Merton, Norton, Fry, Gyles Brandreth, Barry Cryer, Shelia Hancock – who appeared in the very first edition - Sue Perkins, Tony Hawks, Julian Clary and Josie Lawrence.

There are eight episodes in a series, recorded over four days, two episodes per session. Stronge’s first series is now fully recorded and two editions broadcast. Unusually, nothing is wasted: “We record just over half an hour - about 33 mins - and only edit out a few minutes of the extra banter.”

Isn’t that risky, especially given some panellists’ risqué delivery? (Episode two, Julian Clary on the subject of ‘beside the seaside’: “The best way to get a blow on the front …”)

“I suppose it could be, but it’s not really an issue. Radio 4 is an adult station and JAM has always had the potential to be risqué - think prolific former player Kenneth Williams. It flirts with innuendo, but is never out and out rude.”

And what about the power balance? This is a cast of big names, big personalities. Don’t they throw their weight around? “Not really, we’ve all always got on,” the producer says, collaboratively.

He adds: “I’ve definitely been welcomed by the regular team, particularly Nicholas and Paul (Merton). It feels like a bit of a family really.” 

The show’s historical home is the art deco BBC Radio Theatre in central London’s Broadcasting House, occasionally decamping to other London venues. Two special shows have just been recorded at the Edinburgh Festival. Tickets always go like hot cakes.

It’s not unusual to meet fans who’ve been trying to get tickets to be in the audience for years, he says: “I do a warm up and get some polite applause, but when Nicholas appears they go wild. The audience really makes the show and the panel feed off it too.”

There’s also a loyal overseas audience, via BBC World Service, and nowhere more so than in India, where the show has recorded special editions, to the delight of local ‘JAM clubs’. An encyclopedic website for aficionados, complete with programme transcripts, is testament to the show’s enduring appeal.

“I meet a lot of young people who are also fans. When I tell people what I do, they often say they’d love to be on the panel, or have tried playing Just a Minute themselves on car journeys. Panellists like Graham Norton, Paul Merton, Sue Perkins and Shappi Khorsandi are people they come across anyway in popular culture,” Stronge points out. So not an exclusively die-hard Radio 4 fan base.

Stronge succeeded Victoria Lloyd, the producer who introduced Josh Widdicombe to the panel. Before Lloyd, Tilusha Ghelani - now comedy commissioning editor at Sky - successfully steered the ship. Current ‘whistle blower’ Hayley Sterling, like all her predecessors, is JAM’s production co-ordinator.

The new man divides his time between Parsons and the team and producing at least three other comedy shows - It’s Not What You Know and sketch show Daphne Sounds Expensive for Radio 4, plus Newsjack - as well as developing new ideas to pitch. Ideas to celebrate JAM’s 50th anniversary are, of course, taking shape.

One series in, Stronge is clearly happy with his lot: “I enjoy all the shows I work on, but because there’s no script on Just a Minute, it’s especially exciting. It’s entirely improvised, so the ratio of fun to work is very high!

“And when there are 300 people in front of me in the Radio Theatre and I say, ‘Give a big hand to Nicholas Parsons …’ I still have to pinch myself that I’m in charge.”

Just a Minute’s special edition from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Monday, 22 August, 6.30pm, BBC Radio 4 and on BBC iPlayer.

All photos, taken at a recent recording in London’s Shaw Theatre, are by Amanda Benson for the BBC.

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