Just A Minute

 

Thanks Dean, that's great news. Really looking forward to hearing Blowers on JAM. Johnners's delightfully anarchic performances from the 80s have always made me hope for someone like Blowers or Aggers (Jonathan Agnew) to make an appearance. I generally tire of the professional comedians on JAM who sound like they are trying too hard.

Cricket commentators have to entertain, improvise and inform for hours on end and should be ideally qualified to perform on JAM. Well, the type of Peter Jones JAM that I prefer anyway.

I can't help copying (below) a paragraph copied from Brian Johnston's Wikipedia entry.

Cheers,

Matt

"Leg over" incident
Agnew has been known to laugh at or include occasional sexual innuendo, while on air. The most notable of these occurrences took place in August 1991, when Agnew was commentating with Brian Johnston. In a review of the day, Johnston was describing how Ian Botham, while batting, had overbalanced and tried, but failed, to step over his stumps. Botham was consequently given out hit wicket. Agnew's comment on this action was: "He just didn't quite get his leg over." Botham had attracted a number of headlines during his career for his sexual exploits and in British English, "getting one's leg over" is a euphemism for having sexual intercourse.
The comment led to "Johnston, a lover of schoolboy innuendo to rival Frankie Howerd, erupting in a Krakatoa of snorts, whimpers, sneezes and, finally, uncontrollable laughter." Johnston tried to continue his summary, despite being almost unable to speak for laughing. He did manage to say "Aggers, for goodness' sake, stop it" between convulsions of mirth.
The incident was heard by thousands of commuters driving home from work, many of whom were forced to stop driving because they were laughing so much: a two-mile traffic jam at the entrance to the Dartford Tunnel was reportedly caused by drivers unable to pay the toll due to laughter. Fourteen years later, in 2005, Agnew's line, "Just didn't quite get his leg over" was voted "the greatest sporting commentary of all time" by listeners to BBC Radio 5 Live. The other eight finalists included Kenneth Wolstenholme's "They think it's all over – it is now!" and Ian Robertson's "This is the one. He drops for World Cup glory ... It's up! It's over! He's done it! Jonny Wilkinson is England's hero yet again". Agnew and Johnston secured 78% of the votes.

--- In just-a-minute@..., "kj.naughton" <kj.naughton@...> wrote:
>
> My dear old thing!
>
> To cap it off, wouldn't it be delightful if one of the rounds was "Pigeons" or "Double-Decker Buses"?
>
> Cheers
>
> kJ
>
> --- In just-a-minute@..., "Dean" <dbedford@> wrote:
> >
> > Apart from Just A Minute â€" my other radio obsession is cricket commentary. I love it and the best place to find outstanding cricket commentary is of course the BBC, where its Test Match Special team has been an object of my affection for 30 years or so.
> >
> > For all that time, my favourite cricket commentator has been Henry Blofeld. Blowers, for those who don’t know him, is a genuine eccentric, and has fame around the world. In New Zealand for example, he joined the TV cricket commentary team here for many years. His style of commentary, is , shall we say, unique.
> >
> > Why do I mention this here? Because Henry is about to join the Just A Minute family. He is appearing on one of the two shows in Edinburgh to be recorded tomorrow. Paul Merton and Sue Perkins are the regulars for the two shows.
> >
> > TMS fans will recall that another TMS commentator Brian Johnston did three JAMs in the early 80s.
> >
> > Still, Henry could well be making one of those shows that end up as a real classic. We shall see.
> >
> > I can’t wait.
> >
> > To whet appetites, here’s a pic of Paul, Henry and fan .... https://twitter.com/blowersh/status/365775318365134848/photo/1/large
> >
> > Oh and by the way â€" JAM is back today, with Tony Hawks, Gyles Brandreth, Alun Cochrane and Patrick Kielty.
> >
>