Why wasn’t Gyles Brandreth chosen to host ‘Just a Minute’?

Turn aside if BBC Radio 4 isn’t your thing, still less its panel games. But for those of us who grew up with ‘Just a minute’ there was one obvious and outstanding candidate to replace the late Nicholas Parsons, who gave every indication that he was immortal until he was actually cut off at the age of 96. And it wasn’t the person who actually got the job.

The obvious candidate was Gyles Brandreth – though if you’d put in a case for Andy Hamilton, the other genuinely funny man on radio, I’d give it serious thought. But Gyles didn’t get it, nor did Andy. Sue Perkins did.

Perkins is, of course, a decent performer. She’s also articulate and bossy. But the BBC has missed a trick in failing to appoint Brandreth. Brandreth is measurably better and more mellifluous than Perkins. He also has that authoritative-yet-anarchic combination, with an enormously wide range of cultural reference, which is vital in a show that relies overwhelmingly on the personality of the presenter to carry the project.