| Brian Johnston | |
|---|---|
| Born | Brian Alexander Johnston 24 June 1912 Little Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire |
| Died | 5 January 1994 (aged 81) Westminster, London, England |
| Cause of death | Heart attack |
| Nationality | British |
| Other names | Johnners |
| Occupation | BBC cricket commentator |
Brian Alexander Johnston CBE, MC (24 June 1912 – 5 January 1994; often known as Johnners) was a cricket commentator and presenter for the BBC from 1946 until his death.
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Born at the Old Rectory, Little Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, the youngest of four children, he was educated at Eton and New College, Oxford. On 27 August 1922, his father, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Evelyn Johnston, drowned at Bude, Cornwall at the age of 44.
His paternal grandfather was governor of the Bank of England between 1908 and 1913. The World War II airborne division commander Frederick 'Boy' Browning was his first cousin.[1]
Johnston obtained a third-class degree in History in 1934[2] and he then joined the family's coffee business, where he worked until the outbreak of the war. In 1936 he was posted to Brazil[3] but admitted years later that he had little liking for the work, it didn't interest him and said that he wanted to be an actor originally.
When war was declared in September 1939 Johnston joined the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards, where he served as a Technical Adjutant. In the winter of 1944 and early spring of 1945 Johnston and his armoured division were in the thick of the allied advance, crossing the Rhine and fighting their way up to Bremen and Hamburg. he was later awarded the Military Cross in 1945. He took part in the Normandy invasion after D-Day, with the Guards Armoured Division.[4]
Brian Johnston joined the BBC in January 1946 and began his cricket commentating career at Lord's for BBC Television in June 1946 at the England v India Test match.
On 22 April 1948 Johnston married Pauline Tozer, formerly of Sheffield. They had five children. The last of his children to be born, a daughter, Joanna, has Down's Syndrome. In these early years, Johnston was an occasional presenter of other BBC shows, including Come Dancing and All Your Own. Between 1948 and 1952 Johnston presented a live broadcast segment Let's Go Somewhere as part of the Saturday night radio series In Town Tonight. As part of these he stayed alone in the Chamber of Horrors, rode a circus horse, lay under a passing train, was hauled out of the sea by a helicopter and was attacked by a police dog.
He became a regular member of the TV commentary team and, in addition, became BBC cricket correspondent in 1963. From 1965 onwards Johnston split his commentary duties between television (three Tests) and radio (two Tests) each summer. In 1970 Johnston was dropped from the TV commentary team but continued to appear as a member of the team for the radio broadcasts, Test Match Special (TMS). He retired from the BBC in 1972 on his sixtieth birthday, and became a freelance commentator. It was in that capacity that he continued to appear on TMS for the next twenty-two years.
From 1972 to May 1987, Johnston presented Down Your Way on BBC Radio Four, in which he visited a different city, town or village, interviewing local figures (not necessarily celebrities) and playing a piece of music selected by them at the end of each 'voxpop' interview.
Johnston was responsible for a number of the TMS traditions, including the creation, often using the so-called Oxford "-er", of the nicknames of fellow commentators (for example, Jonathan Agnew is still known as "Aggers", Henry Blofeld as "Blowers" and the late, lamented Bill Frindall as "the Bearded Wonder" ("Bearders"). He once complained on air that he had missed his cake at tea during one match - the TMS team are still sent cakes by listeners.
In one famous incident during a Test match at the Oval, Jonathan Agnew suggested that Ian Botham was out hit wicket because he had failed to "get his leg over" (a British slang term meaning to have sex). Johnston carried on commentating (and giggling) for 30 seconds before dissolving into helpless laughter.[5] Among his other gaffes was:
| “ | There's Neil Harvey standing at leg slip with his legs wide apart, waiting for a tickle | ” |
which he uttered when Neil Harvey was representing Australia at the Headingley Test in 1961.[6]
The oft cited quote:
| “ | The bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey | ” |
occurred when Michael Holding of the West Indies was bowling to Peter Willey of England in a Test match at The Oval in 1976. Johnston claimed not to have noticed saying anything odd during the match, and that he was only alerted to his gaffe by a letter from "a lady" named "Miss Mainpiece".[6][7] According to Christopher Martin-Jenkins,[8] the cricinfo biography,[9] and the biography by Johnston's son Barry,[10] Johnston never actually made the remark. Barry Johnston says "It was too good a pun to resist...but Brian never actually said that he had spoken the words on air." However, this is contradicted by an account [11] offered by Henry Blofeld, who claims to have been present at the time.
In 1970 and on 13 July 1983, Johnston said that he didn't agree with the boycotts of South Africa by England cricket teams because he believed that sport and politics shouldn't be mixed.[12] He also had disagreements with John Arlott who backed the boycotts. However, in his 1974 autobiography, Johnston wrote that he both disliked and disagreed with Apartheid, and looked forward to it being ended,[13] which it was in the 1990s.
Johnston variously presented and participated in a wide range of BBC radio and television programmes. These included radio programmes such as In Town Tonight, Down Your Way, Trivia Test Match, and the Royal Command Performance of The Good Life in 1978. He also commentated on events such as the funeral of King George VI, the coronation of Elizabeth II and the wedding of HRH The Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer in 1981. Johnston was also for several years one of the presenters of the Channel 4 magazine programme for the over sixties Years Ahead" along with Robert Dougall, Zena Skinner and Paul Lewis.
He appeared as himself in the 1952 British film Derby Day.
Johnston was a great fan of the British Music Hall and revelled in its often mildly risqué 'schoolboy humour'. An Evening with Johnners, a one-man show that he performed towards the end of his life, included many excruciating jokes, as well as his broadcasting and cricket reminiscences. A recording of one of these shows was released and reached #46 on the UK Albums Chart in March 1994, two months after his death.[14]
He was appointed OBE in 1983 and CBE in 1991.
In the Autumn of 1993 Johnston undertook a series of UK theatre tours, with himself speaking and entertaining audiences, as well a host of after-dinner speeches. On the morning of 2 December 1993, whilst in a taxi going to Paddington train station (Johnston was speaking at Bristol that day), he suffered a massive heart attack. The taxi driver drove him straight to Maida Vale hospital, which was the nearest one, where he was revived, after his heart had stopped. He was transferred to St Mary's Hospital, Paddington where he remained until 14 December. He was then transferred to the King Edward VII hospital for Officers where he was a patient until 23 December. He was discharged but was re-admitted to hospital on 4 January when his health deteriorated again.
When Brian Johnston died on the morning of 5 January 1994, at the King Edward VII hospital for Officers in Marylebone, London,[15] The Daily Telegraph described him as "the greatest natural broadcaster of them all" and John Major, the British Prime Minister and cricket fan, said that "Summers simply won't be the same without him". Brian Johnston’s memorial service was held at a packed Westminster Abbey on 16 May 1994. Over 2,000 people were present. The following year the Brian Johnston Memorial Trust was established to promote cricket in schools and youth clubs, to help young cricketers in need of financial support, and to further disabled cricket. The trust is now part of the Lord's Taverners.