Nicholas Parsons
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Sir Christopher Nicholas Parsons OBE, normally known as Nicholas Parsons (born October 10, 1923 often misquoted as 1928) is a British actor, radio and television presenter.
Parsons made his film debut in 1947, but first became well known to TV audiences during the 1950s as the straight man to comedian Arthur Haynes. After Haynes' sudden death, Parsons went on to appear as a personality in his own right, his fame culminating in the long-running game show, Sale of the Century.
Parsons has been the host of the BBC Radio 4 panel game, Just A Minute, since its first broadcast on December 22, 1967.
He was also the voice of Tex Tucker in the TV series Four Feather Falls.
His father was a general practitioner in Grantham, with patients who included the Roberts family: the daughter, Margaret, later became Margaret Thatcher.
In 1988 he appeared as himself in The Comic Strip Presents ' episode Mr Jolly Lives Next Door, in which he had the extreme misfortune to encounter two incompetent escort agency directors (Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson in their usual cheerfully-violent, dypsomaniac personas) followed by the psychotic and misnamed Mr. Jolly himself (Peter Cook).
Parsons attended St Paul's School and Glasgow University, and was Rector of the University of St. Andrews from 1989 to 1992.
He made a guest appearance in the long running BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who as the Revererend Mr Wainwright in the 1989 serial The Curse of Fenric. He was the vicar of a small Northumberland village which comes under siege from vampires, and his character is killed by one of them.
He was the weekly guest presenter on the 29th April 2005 episode of 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 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."
In the New Year's Honours List of 2004, he was awarded an OBE by the Queen.
External links
- Official website (http://www.nicholasparsons.co.uk/)
- Template:Imdb nameet:Nicholas Parsons