Sue Perkins unveiled as new host of Just A Minute
Former Bake Off presenter follows in the steps of the late Nicholas Parsons on the famous show
Former Great British Bake Off presenter Sue Perkins has been unveiled as the new host of BBC Radio 4’s iconic show, Just A Minute.
The 51-year-old, who was raised Catholic but is Jewish through her maternal line, follows in the footsteps of the late Nicholas Parsons, who presided over the programme for more than 50 years.
She said: “I’m beyond delighted to be asked to host this most legendary of shows.
“Nicholas’ shoes are way too big to fill, but I shall bring my own shoes and work my socks off in them to keep our listeners entertained.”
Perkins first appeared on the show in
2000, following many years as a regular panellist and her first turn at the helm took place as part of a series of guests hosts earlier in 2021.
Adjudicating playfully fought rounds, Perkins oversaw a line-up of Stephen Fry, Jenny Eclair, Desiree Burch and Paul Merton.
Merton returns for the new series, alongside long-standing panellist
Gyles Brandreth.
Perkins revealed in her 2015 memoir, Spectacles, that her maternal grandmother was so scarred by her experience of antisemitism in Britain that she denied her Judaism.
However, as she told The Sunday Times, her grandmother would slip
into Yiddish when drunk on Harveys Bristol Cream sherry, “which probably gave the
game away”.
The next series of Just A Minute begins on Monday, 6 September, on Radio 4 and BBC Sounds
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