Page 230 - They Also Served

the sea by a helicopter. After broadcasting the disposal of a wartime bomb in Hyde Park, he emerged from the relative safety of a public lavatory with the quip that he was ‘feeling flushed’. He was also part of the radio commentary team for the funeral of King George VI, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, the trooping of the colours, and the weddings of Princess Anne and Prince Charles. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Johnston split his time between television and radio cricket coverage until he was suddenly dropped by the BBC in favour of younger presenters and compulsorily retired two years later on his 60th birthday.
For the next 22 years, Brian Johnston worked as a freelance presenter on BBC’s Test Match Special and was also rehired for the next 15 years to present the Sunday night radio show Down Your Way. However, he is best remembered for his schoolboy humour in the cricket commentary box and his unintentional gaffes such as ‘There’s Neil Harvey standing at slip with his legs wide apart, waiting for a tickle’. After complaining that he had been unable to find any cake during the tea interval, the commentary team were subsequently inundated with cake sent by listeners, a tradition that continues to this day.
The subject of a This Is Your Life programme in 1982, he was still working on Test Match Special as well as touring UK theatres as a raconteur when he died in 1994. His memorial service was attended by over 2,000 people. The prime minister, John Major, said, ‘Summers simply won’t be the same without him’. In addition to his broadcasting work, Brian Johnston CBE MC wrote over a dozen books, and his one man show An Evening With Johnners reached the UK albums charts.
224