The BBC cricket commentator Brian Johnston was known as 'Johnners' to millions of cricket fans around the world. For nearly fifty years he was the voice of cricket on BBC television and radio. When Johnners died in 1994 at the age of eighty-one, the Daily Telegraph described him as 'the greatest natural broadcaster of them all.'
Brian Johnston joined the BBC Outside Broadcasts Department in 1946 and was a commentator on both radio and television for state occasions, royal weddings and major sports events such as the Boat Race and the London Marathon. In the fifties and sixties he presented many children's television shows such as What's New and Ask Your Dad, while on radio he interviewed hundreds of sports personalities on Today and Meet a Sportsman.
But of all sports, his favourite was always cricket. Brian Johnston once wrote: 'Far more indelible than the memories of games of cricket played or watched are happy recollections of countless friendships resulting entirely from a mutual love of the game. Beyond my wildest dreams, when I joined the BBC in 1946 and became a cricket commentator, Test and county cricketers gave me their friendship. It has made my time as a sports commentator a supremely happy one and I shall always be grateful to them and to all my colleagues in the BBC commentary box.'
At the age of eighty, Brian Johnston achieved his life-long ambition with his one-man show 'An Evening with Johnners' - in which he entertained sell-out theatre audiences with his hilarious stories about cricket and other sports and his many experiences at the BBC.
Following the success of the books 'An Evening with Johnners' and 'A Delicious Slice of Johnners', Barry Johnston has edited another delightful anthology based on three of the most popular books written by his father, Brian Johnston: 'A Guide to Cricket', 'Chatterboxes' and 'It's Been a Piece of Cake'.
'Another Slice of Johnners' is a witty and affectionate collection of anecdotes and reminiscences by Brian Johnston about his career as a BBC cricket commentator, his selection of the all-time most exciting cricket matches and his fifty favourite cricketers, from Len Hutton to Ian Botham.