i had a nagging feeling there was something special i wanted to listen to and have been waiting for - but when i looked through the bbc7 listings i couldn't see what it was. and today as i came up from dinner i suddenly remembered it's the first of the new (fifty-first!) series of just a minute! it's over on radio 4 - no wonder i couldn't find it on the bbc7 listings - and it went out yesterday. when i heard gyles brandreth speak for the first time my heart clenched momentarily i thought derek nimmo had come to life again and oh i did love him. we are no longer in the days of the classic quartet of kenneth, peter, derek and clement - and though the game has a different feel and is still very funny i am nostalgic for the earlier days of the show. when clement, the last of the oldies, goes - and he must stop soon - he will be 82 this april, and nicholas parsons will be 83 - i wonder if the show will continue past the death or retirement of the two of them. but already the first show this series, without clement freud's lugubrious voice, lacks a certain spark. i can't imagine a different chairman if nicholas were not there. i suppose my ideal younger-generation quartet would be tony hawks, graham norton, paul merton and stephen fry, with sue perkins, ross noble and kit hesketh-harvey as guests.