Over a long career Nicholas Parsons, who has died aged 96, carved out a unique niche for himself in the public imagination, a much-loved broadcaster who seemed to qualify for that overused epithet “national treasure”.
Labelling showbusiness “a survival course”, Parsons attributed his longevity as a performer to having served his apprenticeship in repertory theatre and radio. He was still gainfully employed in his nineties as the perennial host of Radio 4’s Just a Minute, and performed a one-man show at the Edinburgh Fringe.
He was born in 1923 in Grantham, Lincolnshire, and grew up, in his own words, as “the unconventional child” of conventional parents. His father was a GP, in charge of a country practice whose patients included the family of the young Margaret Thatcher (family lore said he delivered the future PM). It was a privileged background (big house, nanny), though as the middle child, with an older brother and younger sister, he felt squeezed out of his parent’s affections.
When his father moved the family to set up practice in Hampstead, north London, Nicholas attended St Paul’s School, where he prospered, in spite of a series of adolescent handicaps: fierce migraines, an awful stammer that through diligent practice he managed to control, and dyslexia.
Ambitious for a career in the entertainment world since he was taken to see a circus at the age of five, Parsons was unfortunately born at a time when you didn’t do what you wanted; you did what you were told. So horrified were his parents at the mere suggestion of their son treading the boards (his mother, a nurse with high personal moral and academic standards, regarded showbusiness as only “fit for drunks and low-lives”), they sent him at the age of 16 to work among the noise and grime of Clydebank’s shipyards in Glasgow. A relative owned a pump and turbine firm and Parsons began an apprenticeship there. Ripped from the warmth of public school, the culture shock almost killed him: his first pay packet for a 48-hour week was 49p.
In tandem with his apprenticeship, Parsons studied engineering at Glasgow University. Here he joined an amateur dramatic society where he helped put on shows for the troops stationed in the city. He later joined the Alhambra Rep, working in theatre at nights and the shipyard by day. His talent for mimicry and impersonations led to his discovery by talent scout Carroll Levis who gave him a spot on his radio show recorded in London (although Parsons’ parents refused to come and watch him).
After the war Parsons left engineering to become an actor, appearing in repertory at Bromley in Kent, discovering that his particular forte was for light comedy. After an unsuccessful foray in West End theatre, he worked as a stand-up comedian on the London cabaret circuit, earning himself a six-month stint as resident comedian at the Windmill Theatre in 1952.
After years working in radio variety, Parsons’ breakthrough came in 1956 on independent television when he was asked to play straight man to droll comedian Arthur Haynes. The show, with scripts supplied by Johnny Speight, who went on to pen Till Death Us Do Part, was a resounding success and Parsons’ partnership with Haynes lasted 10 years, during which time they enjoyed a season at the London Palladium and appeared six times on The Ed Sullivan Show in America.
During this period he was a regular face on British television comedy and variety shows, even providing the voice of Sheriff Tex Tucker in the Gerry Anderson TV puppet series Four Feather Falls (1960). He also began to appear in British film comedies, cast mainly as amiable posh twits or sundry ineffective lower-order government officials in the likes of Carlton-Browne of the F.O. (1959) with Peter Sellers and Terry Thomas, Doctor in Love (1960), Carry on Regardless (1961) and Murder Ahoy (1964), featuring Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple.
After Haynes’ death in 1966, Parsons was asked to host a pilot for a new Radio 4 comedy show. It proved a disaster – Parsons alone emerging with any credit – but the BBC persevered and a broadcasting institution was born with Just a Minute. Inviting guests to talk on a random subject for 60 seconds “without repetition, deviation or hesitation”, Parsons presented the show for 52 years. Much of its success was due to Parsons’ presentation skills, versatility and youthful mind; his experience as a straight man made him the perfect foil to the often delirious comedic ramblings of guests, and he described the show as both the most demanding and most rewarding of his career.
After a spell as Benny Hill’s regular straight man on television in the late 1960s, Parsons went on to front ITV’s Sale of the Century (“And now, from Norwich… it’s the quiz of the week!”), which ran from 1971 to 1984, attracting 21 million viewers at its peak. It was a behemoth, and Parsons himself spoke of how the show almost ruined his career. “After it came off air it was a hell of a struggle being taken seriously as an actor again,” he said.
He attempted to break away the quiz show compere image with more surprising appearances. In 1988 he appeared in The Comic Strip Presents episode “Mr Jolly Lives Next Door” with Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson, and the following year he had a cameo in the Mayall-starring political sitcom The New Statesman. That year he also played a village vicar in Doctor Who.
Perhaps his most daring career choice was narrator in the 1994 West End revival of the cult musical The Rocky Horror Show. But for him it was merely going back to basics: acting and performing in the theatre.
This was the reasoning behind his celebrated one-man show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, which combined stand-up comedy with celebrity guests. Beginning in 2000, the show became a mainstay of the festival, still playing to capacity audiences in 2014 when Parsons was 90.
A supporter of the Liberal Party since university, Parsons declined an invitation to stand as Liberal candidate for the Yeovil constituency in 1976. His work for charity over the years was wide-ranging. He was a leading member of the Grand Order of Water Rats and president of the Lord’s Taverners from 1998 to 1999. He also worked for the NSPCC and the Variety Club, and was an ambassador for Childline. He was awarded an OBE in 2004 and a CBE in 2014.
He is survived by his wife Ann Reynolds and two children from a previous marriage.
Nicholas Parsons, comedian and broadcaster, born 10 October 1923, died 28 January 2020
