Nicholas Parsons

At the end of the Second World War, Parsons became a full-time professional actor. He made his stage debut in the West End as Kiwi in The Hasty Heart at the Aldwych Theatre in 1945 which ran for over a year, then played the lead in a tour of Arsenic and Old Lace.

He made his film debut in Master of Bankdam in 1947 and continued his stage career, with two years in repertory at Bromley, and later, Windsor and Maidstone.

Nicholas Parsons was without doubt one of the UK's most popular and beloved television and radio personalities, and very few can claim to have had such a long entertainment career. The son of a doctor, he was raised in Lincolnshire until the age of eight, when the family moved to London. He was educated at St. Paul's School, London. He trained as an engineer but really wanted to become an actor and decided to pursue his dream. He performed in weekly repertory in Bromley for two years, playing a wide range of parts. His particular talent for comedy and impersonations made him a natural in cabaret and he became the resident comedian at the Windmill Theatre. Much work in radio followed. Parsons acted in several British films during the 1950s and 1960s, including dramas such as The Third Key (1956) and Eyewitness (1956) and comedies such as Doctor in Love (1960) and Carry on Regardless (1961).

In 1952, he became a resident comedian at the Windmill Theatre, performing regular nights of stand-up comedy to packed houses.

On television he worked with Eric Barker and most notably on The Arthur Haynes Show (1956) as Haynes' straight man.

He starred in the West End show Boeing-Boeing for 15 months in the mid-1960s and later, other West End productions throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

It was one of the most unusual and complex characterizations ever created for the Doctor Who (1963) series, and Parsons later described this guest appearance as "one of the most treasured memories".

In 1967 he became presenter of "Just a Minute", a comedy panel show on BBC Radio 4 which also featured regular appearances by Kenneth Williams over the next 20 years.

In a The Benny Hill Show (1969) sketch, the vampire Dracula is waved away from a would-be victim not with a cross, but with a photo of Parsons smiling.

Through the 1970s and into the 1980s, Parsons hosted the hugely popular ITV game show Sale of the Century (1971).

He hosted Sale of the Century throughout its initial incarnation from 1971 to 1983. During his tenure, the audience peaked at over 21 million viewers, a record for an ITV game show.

Parsons was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1978 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews.

In 1983/4 he wrote, produced and directed the shorts British Life, and Rubbish and in 1980 made the short A Fair Way to Play about the Lord Taverners with various show business personalities.

In 1988, Parsons appeared as himself in The Comic Strip episode "Mr. Jolly Lives Next Door", in which he had the misfortune to encounter two incompetent escort agency directors (Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson in their usual cheerfully violent, dipsomaniac personas) followed by the psychopathic and misnamed Mr Jolly himself (played by Peter Cook).

In 1989, having become so closely associated with comedy and light entertainment, Parsons surprised many when he returned to a dramatic role.

He brought great depth and sensitivity to his portrayal of Reverend Wainwright, a tormented clergyman whose faith is tested to the limit by the horrors of the Second World War and the resurrection of a Viking curse in Doctor Who: The Curse of Fenric: Part One (1989).

Parsons featured in the original London cast of the Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods at the Phoenix Theatre in 1990.

He was originally chosen to be the Gamesmaster in Gamesmaster (1992), but the application of the facial distortion techniques didn't work properly so Patrick Moore was ultimately chosen instead.

Parsons wrote an autobiography entitled The Straight Man: My Life in Comedy, which was published in 1994, and he produced a book of memoirs in 2010 called Nicholas Parsons: With Just a Touch of Hesitation, Repetition and Deviation.

Since 2001, he has appeared annually at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe presenting his comedy cabaret show The Happy Hour at the Cabaret Bar at the Pleasance.

He was awarded the OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2004 Queen's New Year Honours List for his services to drama and broadcasting.

He was awarded an honorary DA by the University of Leicester in 2007, and an honorary D.Litt by the University of Lincoln in 2014.

Parsons was a lifelong Liberal, having supported the Liberal Party and the Liberal Democrats. He was invited to stand as a Liberal Party candidate for Yeovil in the 1970s, but he turned down the opportunity in order to remain in the entertainment industry. On 17 October 2013, a week after his 90th birthday, he appeared as a guest on the BBC One political discussion show This Week.

He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2014 Queen's New Year Honours List for charitable services, particularly to children's charities.

Until 4 June 2018, Parsons never missed an episode, but that same month, regular panellist Gyles Brandreth stood in for him for two episodes due to a bout of illness - at the age of 94. The same occurred the following year for two shows recorded at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.