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AUDIO CD REVIEW: Johnners' Cricketing Gaffes, Giggles And Cakes, BBC Audio.
Just the sound of Johnners' voice takes you instantly and deliciously back to an era that was (unless my specs have suddenly gone rosy) much more innocent and much more fun.
You can't help feeling a little quiet satisfaction that the late great Brian Johnston was no longer with us for the ghastly million-dollar winner-takes-it-all match in the West Indies this autumn.
Johnston was the voice of cricket in a much less grubby, much less money-crazed era – an era where life was full of fruit cakes and jolly japes.
But it's an era which lives again on the BBC's excellent Johnners' Cricketing Gaffes, Giggles And Cakes audio CD.
You had to have been there. It's doubtful wherever anyone now would discover Johnners for the first time and think "Oh, how sweet". But if you were there, you'll love this chance to go back with this intelligently-collected selection of Johnners' finest moments, culled from the BBC archives by his son Barry
We've all got our favourites. Mine is the immortal line, seemingly said in all innocence: "The bowler's Holding, the batsmen's Willey". But there is a lovely familiarity about so much of the material included here, from Colin Milburn's attempt to commentate through a mouthful of cake to Johnners' musings on whether it is possible to "play a long cameo".
Amusing too is his deliberation on just how exactly you should "collect a blond streaker" from the pitch. Lovely too is the inclusion of an interview with a very young-sounding Rory Bremner during which Bremner takes off the various commentators.
Other interviews featured include chats with John Cleese and Roy Hudd, but the real pleasure is in Johnners' interplay with the other chaps in the commentary box. I'd forgotten the extent to which Trueman, Mosey et al set up Johnners and fed him his chance to shine – not that he wouldn't have taken it anyway.
Rounding it all off – and completely irresistible even all these years later – is the legendary leg-over incident. It's a tonic to hear it once more. What makes it so funny is the way that Johnners and Aggers resist the giggles for so long after the faux-pas is committed. But then resistance collapses, after which there's just no stopping them until very suddenly professionalism regains control and order is restored.
The man was priceless.
Phil Hewitt
ISBN: 9781408409480. RRP: 8.99. Duration 1 hour 10 minutes on 1 CD. Available from all good bookshops, online at www.bbcshop.com or by BBC Audiobooks direct mail on 0800 136 919.
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Tuesday 14 February 2012
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