Ian Cassan Messiter (2 April 1920 – 22 November 1999) was an English

BBC Radio BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...

producer and the creator of a number of

panel game A panel show or panel game is a radio or television game show in which a panel of celebrities participate. Celebrity panelists may compete with each other, such as on '' The News Quiz''; facilitate play by non-celebrity contestants, such as on ' ...

s, including ''

Just a Minute ''Just a Minute'' is a BBC Radio 4 radio comedy panel game. For more than 50 years, with a few exceptions, it was hosted by Nicholas Parsons. Following Parsons' death in 2020, Sue Perkins became the permanent host, starting with the 87th ser ...

'', ''Dealing With Daniels'' and '' Many a Slip''. Messiter brought the successful '' twenty questions'' format to BBC Radio and was programme associate for '' Family Fortunes''.

Biography

Ian Messiter was born in

Dudley Dudley ( , ) is a market town in the West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically part of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. In the ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

, and educated at Winton House School, near

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

, and

Sherborne School Sherborne School is a full-boarding school for boys aged 13 to 18 located beside Sherborne Abbey in the Dorset town of Sherborne. The school has been in continuous operation on the same site for over 1,300 years. It was founded in 705 AD by Ald ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

. In his autobiography, ''My Life and Other Games'' (1990), Messiter described how an incident during a history lesson at Sherborne School became the inspiration for the ''

'' radio panel-game. Messiter acted as whistle-blower on ''Just a Minute'', and its predecessor ''One Minute, Please''. He appeared in the first series of BBC science-fiction quiz show '' The Adventure Game'' in 1980 as the Rangdo, the leader of the alien Argonds, and contributed ideas for puzzles in the series. He published his autobiography ''My Life and Other Games'' in 1990. Nicholas Parsons stated that ''Just a Minute'' is "perhaps the most deceptively simple, enduring, popular and much-copied comedy game on radio or television anywhere". In each edition, Messiter is acknowledged as the inventor of the game.

Family

Messiter married Enid, née Senior. They had two children: a daughter, Susan, who lives in Cambridgeshire, and a son, Malcolm Messiter, who is an oboist.

References

External links

Messiter's game show magic, Obituary of Ian Messiter
''BBC News''

in ''The Guardian'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Messiter, Ian 1920 births 1999 deaths People from Dudley BBC radio producers English radio producers People educated at Sherborne School