Meet Justin Time: The Homemade Talk Show Host Who Pulls No Punches

I had an email from one of my former students, Will Ross, the other day.  It was short and sweet (which was surprising considering the reams he used to write for classwork just, I suspect, to extend my marking misery). Regardless, he moved on to pastures (and professorial victims) new and I thought I’d seen the back of him. But oh no – he just had to share his latest video with me because “I remembered that Welsh people have a sense of humour too”.  I should refer him to something widely but incorrectly attributed to Dylan Thomas: “The Welsh pray on their knees on Sunday, but prey on their neighbours for the rest of the week”.  It’s a bad play on words, but if you enjoy that kind of thing, then watch Will’s video; it’s full of them…

We have former roving but sadly disgraced (don’t ask) reporter Justin Time - who occasionally changes his name – reduced to producing his own TV Chat Show at home.  Never mind, he has the coup of the century – any century - an interview with Adolf Hitler (who just happened to be in the area promoting his new vegetarian cookbook and believes that Justin still works for the BBC).  Justin doesn’t spare the sometime dictator – he goes straight in for the kill with a series of questions that are a combination of probing, persistent and provocative. No, sorry. They’re puerile, preposterous and piss-taking – which is what makes them funny. I must admit I missed a few of the punchlines the first watch, but Mr Time quickly beats the boy from Branau into a corner where there is just one (not even a last) resort…

I think if Terry Jones had had access to video technology, then this is exactly the kind of thing he would have been making in his Colwyn Bay living room.  It’s rough around the edges, for sure, but it did what it set out to do – provoked laughter.  Have a watch – and yes, of course I am featuring this just in case Will is hailed as a comic genius in ten years.  I will also be available for interview (for a small fee) where I can expound on Will’s classroom antics, but could I have Louis Theroux rather than Justin Time, please?  He might let me off more lightly.