Nicholas Parsons

Nicholas Parsons
Born	Christopher Nicholas Parsons 10 October 1923 (1923-10-10) (age 84) Grantham, Lincolnshire
Nationality	English
Known for	Just a Minute Sale of the Century
Occupation	Actor, radio and TV presenter
Spouse	Denise Bryer (1954-1989)(divorced) Ann Reynolds (1995- )
Children	2 children with Bryer

Christopher Nicholas Parsons OBE (born 10 October 1923), normally known as Nicholas Parsons, is an English actor and radio and television presenter. He was appointed OBE in 2004.

Early life

Parsons was born on 10 October 1923, in Grantham, Lincolnshire, where his father was a General Practitioner whose patients included the parents of Margaret Roberts (later Thatcher). His father delivered the future Prime Minister in 1925.^[1] As a child Parsons suffered from a stutter which he overcame by the age of 15, and he was slow at writing owing to dyslexia.^[1] He was interested in the theatre, but his parents thought that a career in engineering would be better, as he had repaired clocks and he was good with his hands.^[1] As a teenager, after leaving St Paul's School, his family arranged a job for him in Glasgow, where he was briefly employed in the shipyards of Clydeside before studying engineering at the University of Glasgow.^[1]

Broadcasting career

He made his film début in 1947, but first became well known to TV audiences during the 1950s as the straight man to comedian Arthur Haynes and a regular on The Benny Hill Show from 1969–1974. After Haynes' sudden death, Parsons went on to appear as a personality in his own right, his fame culminating in the long-running Anglia Television game show, Sale of the Century, broadcast weekly from 1971 to 1983. Parsons has been the host of the BBC Radio 4 panel game Just a Minute since its first broadcast on 22 December 1967. He was also the non-singing voice of Tex Tucker in the TV series Four Feather Falls. In 1988 he appeared as himself in The Comic Strip Presents ' episode "Mr Jolly Lives Next Door", in which he had the misfortune to encounter two incompetent escort agency directors (Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson in their usual cheerfully-violent, dipsomaniac personas) followed by the psychopathic and misnamed Mr Jolly himself (played by Peter Cook). In 1989 he made a guest appearance in the long running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who as the doomed Northumberland vicar Reverend Wainwright in the Seventh Doctor serial The Curse of Fenric. He has also taken the role of the narrator in the stage musical The Rocky Horror Show. In April 2005 he was the weekly guest presenter on the BBC news quiz Have I Got News for You, having been turned down some time previously. According to Guy Adams, writing in The Independent's "Pandora" column, Have I Got News for You team captain Paul Merton, also a regular panellist on Parsons' show Just a Minute, had commented shortly before the decision, "I have two contenders for the job, who represent the best possible choices. One would be Nicholas Parsons. The other would be Bagpuss."

Roles outside broadcasting

Between 1988 and 1991 Parsons served as Rector of the University of St. Andrews. In 2004, he was appointed OBE. In 2005 he became honorary Chairman of the International Quizzing Association (IQA), a body which organises the World and European Quizzing Championships. He is a leading member of the Grand Order of Water Rats charity. He was the president of the charity the Lord's Taverners in 1998-1999. Parsons is also a high-profile supporter of the Liberal Democrats. Each year he holds his own live chat show in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival promoting up-and-coming comedians.

References

External links

• Nicholas Parsons interview on the MusicalTalk Podcast
• Nicholas Parsons talking about Just a Minute (RealPlayer video)
• Nicholas Parsons at the Internet Movie Database