Ian Messiter
{{Short description|English radio producer (1920–1999)}}
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Ian Cassan Messiter (2 April 1920 – 22 November 1999) was an English BBC Radio producer and the creator of a number of panel games, including Just a Minute,{{cite book|last= Stevens|first= Christopher|title= Born Brilliant: The Life Of Kenneth Williams|publisher= John Murray|year= 2010|isbn = 978-1-84854-195-5|page=370}} 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, Worcestershire, and educated at Winton House School, near Winchester, and Sherborne School in Dorset.
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 Just a Minute radio panel-game.{{Cite web|date=2019-01-03|title=Just a Minute & Mr Parry-Jones|url=https://oldshirburnian.org.uk/just-a-minute-mr-parry-jones/|access-date=2020-10-10|website=The Old Shirburnian Society|language=en-GB}}
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".{{Cite web|url=http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-ian-messiter-1128686.html|title=Obituary: Ian Messiter|date=1999-11-26|website=The Independent|language=en|access-date=2019-05-12}} 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
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External links
- [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/534931.stm Messiter's game show magic, Obituary of Ian Messiter] BBC News
- [https://www.theguardian.com/Archive/Article/0,4273,3934437,00.html Obituary of Ian Messiter] in The Guardian
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