Ten things you may not know about Just a Minute

1. Ian Messiter, the show's inventor, was originally an illusionist called Cassan The Mystic, named after his surgeon father Dr Cyril Cassan Messiter.
2. Paul Merton wrote to the producer asking to be on the panel
3. Kenneth Williams' mum sat in the front row for every performance he appeared in, laughing loudly at her son's jokes
4. Clement Freud and Nicholas Parsons were at the same school
5. Nicholas Parsons originally didn't want the job of chairman, preferring to be on the panel. He has now been chairing for 35 years
6. There was a Just A Minute board game manufactured by Chad Valley in the fifties
7. Clement Freud, as one of the original Just A Minute panellists, has taken part in the greatest number of shows 443 so far
8. The first TV version of the game was sold to Dumont TV in America in 1954
9. Peter Jones was a pioneer in radio improvisation being the first comedian to be allowed on the airwaves without a BBC approved script
10. Guests have included Aimi MacDonald, Alfred Marks, Liz Frazer, Willie Rushton, Warren Michell, Barbara Castle, Prunella Scales, Fenella Fielding and Beryl Reid, Magnus Pyke, Thora Hird, Pam Ayres, Elaine Stritch, Bernard Cribbins and Patrick Moore.