uninterrupted minutes and other stats

There's been some discussion on the Yahoo group on the subject of uninterrupted minutes since the recent show where Sue Perkins had two of them. Nicholas claimed that was a first.

There have been a few shows where this has been done. The record is actually three times in one show, by the late lamented Sir Clement Freud in a show in 1981.

Sue is certainly getting better and better at the game though!

Someone else pointed out that it's now been a while since Paul Merton and Tony Hawks were on a show together. They were last on a TV show together in April last year, and it's more than two years since they were on a radio show together.

Strangely they also didn't appear together for almost three years between August 1999 and July 2002. And in that period, they were second and third in total appearances, behind Clement.

I think the current absence is partly because Tony Hawks is appearing far less frequently than he was a few years ago.

A similar oddity... since Clement's death in April 2009, Gyles Brandreth and Sue Perkins are second and third in total appearances. Yet in those four and a half years, they have not been on a show together.