Ian Messiter


Ian Cassan Messiter was a BBC Radio producer and the creator of a number of panel games, including Just a Minute, Dealing With Daniels and Many a Slip. Messiter brought the successful Twenty Questions format to BBC Radio. and was programme associate on Family Fortunes. Messiter was born in Dudley, Worcestershire, and educated at Winto House and Sherborne School in Dorset. He acted as whistle-blower on both One Minute, Please and Just a Minute. 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 Just a Minute is "perhaps the most deceptively simple, enduring, popular and much-copied comedy game on radio or television anywhere" In each episode, Parsons thanks Messiter for inventing 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.