Test Match Special - #40from40: Rory Bremner

Episode Date: April 16, 2020

Comedian and impressionist Rory Bremner joins Brian Johnston to take View From the Boundary during the Ashes of 1985 and gets a big surprise...

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. To embrace the impossible requires a vehicle that pushes what's possible. Defender 110 boasts a towing capacity of 3,500 kilograms, a weighting depth of 900 millimeters, and a roof load up to 300 kilograms. Learn more at landrover.ca. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. Classic view from the... Boundary on BBC Sounds.

Hello, this is Jonathan Agnew. Welcome to another classic view from the boundary. For 40 years, we've welcomed some of the biggest names from across the world, the commentary box to discuss their lives and, of course, their love of cricket. Today, we're going back to 1985 and a balmy August day at Edgebaston. It was England against Australia, with the hosts on their way to reclaiming the ashes. Richard Ellison took 10 wickets in the game, while David Gower scored a brilliant 215. England won the match by an innings and 118 runs. I was 12th man. It was the last time I wore my

England cap. So anyway, good impressions made on the field and even better ones off it, as he received a visit from the up-and-coming star, Rory Bremner, with his amazing array of voices, who then 24-year-old joined Brian Johnston for a chat over lunch, and there was a surprise visit for our guest, too. You know, thank you, John. It's a lovely day, and it's very entertaining, and you join us at the lunch interval, and interestingly enough, of course, England did take a couple of early wickets, but more importantly, we took a couple of early cakes, which is lovely, some cakes sent in by Mrs. Johnston, Beaconsfield, I think it was, and entertaining also in halfway through the morning session when the England trainer ran on with the bucket and sponge, a nice jam

sponge, in fact, which found us way up to the country box, and my lunchtime guest today is Brian Dronston. Well, just in case you get a bit of a muddle, that was a voice of a young man who has as many voices as Freddie Truman has cigars. he's had a marvellous year I don't know if any young entertainers really had so many appearances on the telly he's got a radio shows of his own

and he does the voices of a lot of cricket commentators a lot of ordinary commentators a lot of personalities and so on his name is Rory Bremner Rory in your own voice very nice for you to come up here I haven't brought my own voice yes I have got my own voice

I mean do sometimes find it difficult to use your own voice no actually I think in the early days I used to do impressions all the time But now that if you meet somebody at a party, they say, what did you for a living? And I say, well, I do impressions of people. They usually say, oh, gone, let's hear a quick Brian Johnson, or let's hear a quick John Arlitt. But now they've usually seen what I've done or heard what I've done thanks to the record or whatever.

And so I can use my own voice much more than I used to in the past. Well, you mentioned the record, no, no, no, 19. Just tell us the story there, because I'm a bit of a square. I didn't know what the original record was. Well, I don't think many people did, actually. No, the original record was, it was done by a chat called Paul Hardcastle. And what he did, it was a strange thing because he stitched together a very loud track

with lots of rhythm and lots of drums and things like that to stitch that together to some reported commentary on the Vietnam War done by war correspondents. And the major sort of light motif that ran through it was the average age of the combat soldier was 19. No, no, no, no, no, 1919. And I heard this record, and I quite

enjoyed it, actually, to start with, but then I, the Ritchie Benno impression that I do, which I don't know, maybe Brian, you and your fellow commentators have heard it. but in it I do a lot of reported speech rather along the same lines as the commentary that came from the news correspondence

and so I in the middle of a Richie Benno impression once stuttered and the two went together rather well I thought well this would be a good idea to actually take Richie Benno take all the reported commentary take the commentators and put those to the same

sort of rhythm track so I did that for a friend of mine who works in radio programme in London and the publishing company listened to it and really liked the idea and said come on let's get a single out and let's do that and it became a quick single It went up the charts and

it really was received an awful lot of her play. So everything was NNA-19, wasn't it? I mean, you would have had a good one today because Gouche, how many did Gouge make today? Yes, well, interestingly enough, Brian, the highlights today, apart from those in Ian Botham's hair

were an entertaining innings by Gouche in which he reached 9-N-N-N-N-N-N-N-N-Teen. Interestingly, I think it was Wood yesterday who scored 19. I think they're doing it on purpose, don't you? What was the point of the stammer in the thing? Did the original one have a sort of...

Well, the original one was all done electronically, actually. It was... I don't really stammered there. It was electronically. It was... It's a strange machine, actually. It's really extraordinary, because what they can do, all sorts of things now in a sound studio. And it was all done digitally. There you are. That's a repetition for you.

That's just the needle getting stuck. But they fed the word 19 into the computer. And each time you pressed a button, you would get 19 coming out. But if you press it two times, you get 19. If you press it three times, you get... and 19, like this. And this is how they broke up the record and it sort of made part of the rhythm of the record

by doing it in this extraordinary way. And we sold 100,000. 100,000? That's not bare. What about cricket yourself? I mean, did you play at school? Yes, I was at Wellington and played quite a bit. I only ever, unfortunately, got to second 11 standard. But I did want to manage 47 against her.

It was very jolly school. And move the scoreboard along, until in fact the umpire told me to get a move on. I was out next ball. It was one of the things that happens. And, no, I used to play quite a bit. play for occasionally for a side down in Sussex called Hoven Andrescripts

And that's sort of when I can It's obviously been very busy this year But I'd love to play much more When did we discover this gift of being able to imitate people I think it was at school actually It's the old story about if you ask a lot of impressionists They always say at school they were imitating the masters or whatever And I think I did that

I wasn't that much of a sports model I played in a sort of second and 11 level And so I used to spend a lot of time in the back of coaches and whatever other people were doing I was doing commentaries and so I used to do Bill McLaren with all the sort of hello and welcome to Twickenham and of course

it's a really exciting day as you join us for the 33rd game between England and this extremely talented all black side and these sort of things and it grew on from there and I married really those sort of impressions to the sort of material that I remember hearing as a kid

up at the Edinburgh Festival which is where I came from originally and that's why I have more sort of satirical element to the impressions. Where you're actually appearing now next week, is that that's right?

Yes, I was just up there on Monday and Tuesday having a look around and I'm doing a couple of shows on the 25th and 27th after the assembly room is there and really, I mean, the fringe has been

probably the biggest influence on my career so far because I did a couple of shows a few years ago and this was at a time when Rowan Atkinson was doing his first shows up there and Rick Mail

was doing his first shows and I think that's the sort of comedy that's the sort of material this kind of late night satire review sketch kind of show that's always appealed to me rather than, you were saying a little

on about a summer season. Rather than doing those end of the pure summer season shows, I'm much happier doing something in a sort of dimly lit late night show at the Edinburgh Festival because I think there's much more scope for the sort of material that I do,

which does, I suppose it does demand a certain knowledge of topical events and what's going on and that sort of thing. How do you set about copying someone's voice? Do you play a tape, you know, backwards and forwards and backwards and forwards? Funnily enough, to begin with, I didn't actually.

It's just as more and more people ask me to do different voices. In fact, recently, I'm trying to think of a voice I was asked to do, Roger Moore, for example. People said, could you do Roger Moore? And what I did, I sort of remembered he was interviewed a couple of times, so I had a quick look. And I realized that he has a very deep voice, a very laid-back style of speaking in which he hesitates the same way.

And so it's really, when people throw new voices at me that I have to have a listen. Generally, there have been voices, though, that I've worked on by instinct. And when you take somebody like Richie Bennow, for example, as a king cricket affair and myself, I've listened to him for many seasons. And what with him and Jim? I think over the years, you've got quite a good idea of the regime

and quite a good idea of how they sound, and it went on from there. But I'm actually having to work more at the voices now. Because you're doing television, so do you try and put a bit of visual effect in as well? I mean, do you try and look like the more? Yes, this is the thing. It's funny in many ways. I think radio is a more suitable medium for an impressionist because it's easy, well, not as easy, obviously.

I mean, this is all relative, but as an impressionist, it's the first thing you go for is the sound. And I think I'm rather distracted by the idea of spending hours in front of a mirror perfecting what somebody looks like. I think nowadays, obviously, with makeup and with mirrors, there is a lot you can do with trick photography and things like that. But I'd rather not, actually,

because I think you lose a lot of the charm of an impression if you try to look exactly like the person and you have elaborate makeup. It was a bit more of a burlesque, isn't it? Absolutely, yes, it's much more of a caricature, which is funny because people sort of say, it's like the spitting image thing, people say, is this very cruel impression or whatever?

It's not really, it's exactly what cartoonists have been doing for years. You're essentially caricaturing a person, their idiom the way they speak. Now, do you judge when you've got the voice right, or have you got a minder or listener who'll say, that is right, or can you judge... I've got a few listeners. It'll tell me when I get something wrong,

but, no, there's... Generally, I can hear it in my own mind, and also, when I'm performing... I usually rehearse... outside when I'm walking along to the tube station or something I can remember my first Kenneth Williams' impression I was late for a train once and I was just walking along thinking

I wonder and you say I was trying to deer is you know and I was walking along and gradually these voices and so occasionally I could turn around and find myself followed by sort of baffled commuters this is in my college days years ago now I don't get up before 12 well I do actually I have to get up before 12 o'clock

do you ever ring people up with their voice I mean, is that put them off a bit? I don't think you've done it to a number of people, actually. I did it to Radio 4 producer the other day, in fact. I rang up one of the people who works on the Wogan program, is Pete Estill, and he used to work together with Ian Gardhouse, who's my producer for colour supplement, the little bit we do there. So I rang up, Peter in Scotland.

Hello, Peter, is Ian Gardhouse here for Radio 4? Unfortunately, when we weren't able to release Rory until about half an hour before Wogan goes on air, is that going to be all right? There was silence down the other end, and he was very, very worried, and eventually I... And also on my answer phone, I put sort of... Prince Charles is very kindly answering my phone at the moment because, unfortunately, I've had to go out and get nappies for Harry.

And so this electronic flunky is going to see and listen. So people ring you up, they hear Prince Charles, does it? Okay, they might even hear Robert Day, depending on how I'm feeling, in fact. Yes, it all depends on the state of play, which I gather here is quite good, in fact. Well, what about now, before we deal with the cricket commentators, other ones, people, is someone like David Coleman, easy?

Well, now, I've all been told, that David Coleman based a lot of mistakes, and they're a fair, in fact, on the sports commentators, it's funny, because since this record, I've been associated more than anything else with sports commentators, there are quite a few to choose from, and the things you pick up are the people who make a lot of mistakes, like Murray Walker, for example.

I don't know if the sound engineer is listening, he'd better turn the levels down, because Murray Walker is fairly loud, and he does make a lot of mistakes when he's announcing it's Nelson P.K. of Argentina. I think you'll find James Hunt's interrupts. I think you'll find it is, in fact, Nelson P.K. of Brazil. James Hunt is right. I am wrong. It is, of course, Pek. And there is Mark Fetcher in the Sinclair C.

And you find it's those who make the mistakes that you pick up on. But I think it's difficult in some way. ways to be um to be to be to be satirical about those sort of things that you like i mean i love sport anyway you mentioned a name now not unknown in certain television circles wogan you've been on about three or four of his shows can you do him you know that's an interesting question plan and you know i've often been asked to do wogan it's it's a hard one but i found the thing with wogan is is it's much more instead of going for the irish accent where you tend to end up with the name and and instead of ha ha ha yes i'm a wacky irishman and this one of instead of doing that sort of

voice. You go for the intonation. And a fine man like yourself, Brian, well, you, you will notice that his voice goes up and down and, you know, on radio three listeners, get a bit closer to the old, the old tranny in the corner. And he loves playing with old phrases, and and it's really the self-deprecation, really, that I aim for in his character, because he often, he does these things like, I never forget me, old maize, like Gloria Hunterford. there's a fine figure of a salary and Jimmy Young that's a contradiction in terms

these sort of things can you do Jimmy Young he's put me right on the spot there so I'm going to go back to Richie but I could do Jimmy Young I think with a little bit of a little bit of practice I think you'd then go for the the jolly old thing you see and what will be doing

it's not there by any means but I think that's what you go for you go for you go for the jolly old up and down you see Mrs Satcher you see when I asked you to form the government all this sort of stuff yeah right by now Coming into the cricket commentary box, what about our summarisers, The Boyle or Sir Frederick? Well, I have heard of it, Sir Frederick.

In fact, funnily enough, a few weeks ago I was working on a television programme, and Barry Cryer came out with a lovely idea for a sketch, which was in fact, Richie Benno was commentating. He was, in fact, in bed with somebody. And so the sketch ran along the lines of, yes, you join us here behind the GuestWorks Inn, and it's been an interesting day's play,

and play a bit quiet at the moment, and it continued like this until I had to say, and comment now from Fred Truman and David Copperfield was funnily off playing Fred Truman, stuck his head up between us in the bed and turned around and said, Oh, if that's me, it's not time they put somebody else on. And so that's Barry Cryer at that one.

Thanks, Barry, if you're listening here, there. So Fred is a fairly easy one to do. Well, of course, I'm a bit fewer on cigars, but I think there's, occasionally you detect a certain amount of animosity getting on, going on the box, which is lovely, you know, it's like you'll say, and it's lovely, I think it's a 200th test wicket.

Well, actually, it's 201st. As anyone who takes 300 wickets and a testament which will tell you, it's been a good bit of bowling. Because I thought he'd be rather burdly. And this sort of lovely, I think that's what makes this, the Radio 3 Comptory, such an institution is really the interplay between the characters. Institution of it, well, what about the great John Arlott? Now, everybody thinks they can take him of.

Is he the easiest one of you? Well, he's one of the easiest, because of course he's got a voice, I would describe with the adjective, Stilton, because it's a very kind of crumbly voice. And, you know, the way Thompson's been bowling out there today, you'd think the bat was a protected species. It's a very grumbly sort of voice. I hope he's getting well. Yeah, I think someone's come in the box. Yeah, don't worry about that.

Where are the royalties? That's what I want to know. Oh, what a setup. Oh, my God. Come on in the real Richie Benner. Oh, my goodness. I see. But I do recognise yourself

when you hear him doing it? Well, I don't think anyone knows exactly what their voice is, but that's not the point. Where are the royalties? Actually, that's a very interesting point. They're on the scoreboard over there. About 103.

A lot of Nords out there. That's a typical English... Oh dear, what am I going to do? What a sap. You'll have to pay up, I think. Well, I've got five pounds, actually. Well, I'm just going back to have some lunch, but I can tell you that I enjoy

I enjoy the record and I particularly enjoyed the piece you did on the Wogan show I thought that was very, very good when you've got the visual effect as well Oh that's not because they actually ran in some of the test match footage from last year I think That's right Of course all the bats been being bounced out

Which I felt added to it all. That all looked very good And the one they have on top of the pops as well Oh yes, that's I had to do that two or three times actually Because it's very very difficult Because that record just goes on and on on on and if you lose track And of course there were five different voices

And five different cameras to work to and it was quite oh I don't know what to say I'm overcome here well don't you worry about a thing you just keep going my wife and I need the money thank you is that the first time you've met a victim unaware is it? It's certainly the first time I've met that victim unaware's yeah

I often wondered actually yes am I ever going to yes well there you are well you've met him the bearded in wonder now he's over the other side of the ground I'm bowled over what about the bearded wonder now he comes in every now and again.

The last person to do the bearded wonder was in 1964. It was in the oval test. You said the bearded snort it comes in, apparently you're saying? Is he snorts a lot? Yes. Can you do a snort? Well, I...

Yes, I think the last person to do a snort was in 1964 in the oval test and it was an extreme... It's really... The way I did him on the record, I think we used him on one occasion, and that was just to provide a statistic. I did a program... Sorry. No, go on the other day with Andy Peoples

when we had Henry Blowfelt on the other end of the line. And what about Blurz? Is he easier to do? Well, Andy Peoples says him very well. It's essentially this My Dear Old Thing, yes. It's an extremely interesting day. We asked him, actually, about Andy Beavisle said, well, how do you feel about not actually being imitated on the record? He said, my dear old thing, I don't mind, because there was a bus. There was a bus,

which, of course, entertained me enormously. And I was listening to his commentary this morning. And he does get a lovely sort of attention as the bowler comes up. Tompton, he comes in, there's three slips. A gully. He comes in now. A blackbird goes across the ground. Anyway, never mind. Now, back with Thompson. He comes in now. He bowls. Robinson plays back.

And as soon as the ball reaches the other end of the wicket, they sort of subdued Robinson plays back. And there is no run. He always sees a rare pigeon or a rare magpie. A rare pigeon strides across the ground. A bat underneath its wing. It's interesting, this pigeon. It looks. It turns around. It comes into the wicket now.

It bowls. The ball goes, yes. I mean, you once saw a butterfly walking across the pitcher at a head of him. A butterfly. Very jolly. It's got a butterfly kick here. No, no, in fact, blow them the back. Somebody said, I was outside and thought, I must get a cake, must get a cake up to the commentary box. He said, oh, I shouldn't bother.

I should have got about 17 up there. I should have said 19, shouldn't. They have got four or five, but if you've gotten cakes, do send them in? Don't, please, anymore. It's very kind, but we've got so many here, which are giving some away, but they're very nice, the ones we have got.

Any other, Bob Willis now has been on a bit. Is he easy to do? Bob, he's a very quiet voice, isn't he? He's, um, um, how does he? So how does Bob Willis sound? Let me think. I mean, how do you pick up a voice now? You've got to try and think of it. I mean, it'd be easy if I played your record. You could then imitate it.

Absolutely. Again, more than anything else, it's the intonation. I mean, I'll try and get back to Bobillis in a little while. But with Sandy Gould, for example, this is, I mean, one that I was tried to work at. And you've watched so many news bulletins, and you think, what is it that's special about him? And soon you realize it is because he has a certain harshness of voice. And when he does newslines like the Hannibal Liberation Front, They claimed another major victory when they managed to set free the entire

studio audience of the prize is right. Report follows. It's this kind of harsh... I think with Willis, what do I try to go for? I'd go for the... It's a slight draw. Yeah, it's a slight drawl. Usually he gets asked the question that somebody's just been asked

before, like Peter Wess will say, so, let's see. Entertaining Day in Prospect. Yes, I think probably quite a few runs on the board and a few wickets to go down by the end of the close of play I'd hope and it would go to Bob. Yes Bob what do you think and he'll say well

I thought quite a few runs on the board and closed a place and then he'll go on he'll repeat the last phrase and then go into his own analysis but I'll work on that. That was quite good West, that was rather good Peter West has he got a particular thing you pick up?

Yes he's very shiny forehead which occasionally catches the glint on the ground when he talks all, he catches all the stars yesterday I was watching. He had Leslie Thomas, who of course wrote. He's always watching, if you watch Peter West on the television thing. He's always looking down at this monitor, I don't know, by his feet or whatever. And he's trying to hurry the guests.

And now we're going to see the fall. Yes, no, we're not. Yes, I think we'll carry on, Tom. The fall now of Gower. Now, Gower had reached 12. And I'm waiting for the day when he puts his pipe in his pocket and you'll see smoke piling out of it. And now we see my pocket on fire.

Have you got any favourite? It's the one favourite one you do, which you like more than any. I like to do voices that aren't done a lot. And Dennis Norton is certainly one of my favourites. You know Dennis Norton? Yes, it looks familiar, yeah. Because he, if you listen to him, it's good afternoon. Now, if you're one of those people

that can remember what I did. to make me famous in the first place, then you're probably daft enough to enjoy the next 40 years of looks rehearsed. And somebody said, I did that once, and who should appear at the stage door after the show, but Dennis Norton, and the only comedy said,

he said, I really enjoyed that. He said, but just one thing. I'm a lot slower than you make me sound. If you've seen him then, he does all the gestures with the hands which I must say Dennis Norton does speak with the hands. Rory, we could go on for a long time, but I hope you'll study.

I must say, it was a hell of a shock when I first heard you. I was doing a cricket commentary, and I heard myself doing a cricket commentary, and I thought, goodness, am I in a dream? Anyhow, Rory Bremner, very good luck with all your voices, continued success, and it's been very kind of you to come up here, and I hope we enjoy the rest of the cricket. Yes, thanks, it looks a lovely day, yes.

And we're going now back for some cricket scores. Would you like to hand back to the studio? Yes, let's go back to the studio. Just to remind you the score here, 103 for 1, and back now for the rest of the cricket scores. Wonderful voices and wonderful memories, and Rora has been a guest many times over the years, but I don't think he's yet perfected me.

There's so much more for the TMS Archive. Let's give you a taster of one classic view from the boundary. You can download via BBC Sounds. It's the Monty Python star, John Cleese. Let's go back to a 12-year-old six-foot. I mean, you could have been a demon, fast, but it's all terror of the other schools. I was too physically weak and fragile. I was incredibly thin, and so I used to run up quite a long way, and then bowl fairly slow,

which was quite a good trick for the first ball. It was quite a problem, too, the bat. One used to use, in my day, it was a force bat, but Jack Hobbes. But, I mean, did you have a full-sized bat? No, no, I realized it was only my got to about 18, I realized I had to have a long bat because the moment I picked the bat up, I was literally slightly over balancing towards the off stump, because I was at too great an angle to start with. That's quite right.

So you had Somerset as yours, did you have any sort of England players other than Somerset players? You particularly followed any sort of the greats like the Hammonds or he was on even before you really there? Well, it was, I suppose Dennis Compton was one. But it was, funny enough, it was more that old Somerset team that caught my imagination. And I think I began to lose a little bit of interest by about the fifth year in a row that we got the, written spoon. And then, as I said, I seem to get back into it, partly because the Somerset teams of the late 70s started winning one or two trophies. I can still remember sitting at Lords when we won our first, what was it? I'm so confused. Gillette Cup, was it? What year was

was that? Do you remember it? 78? Something in the late 70s. We've been in the final the previous year and lost to Sussex. And then we beat Northam. And lots of cider on the ground. But it would never be the same. I mean, I actually sat there thinking they've won something. They've actually won. It was the first time they'd won anything in a hundred years. And I felt it will never be the same again. The romance has gone. Did you have a captain aside? Yes, yes. I captained my prep school team. I've got a photograph of myself walking off because by that time I was six, one and a half. And of course, all the outfits were about four foot. This extraordinary picture. I think people would be Interesting, you don't mind analyzing yourself a little bit.

I mean, people think of you of the irascible, you know, out of that. But that's only since faulty tires, actually, Brian. They think of you as that. Yes, because what happens is that people form a kind of stereotype image of you, depending on what was the last thing that you did. And if you go back almost 20 years, because I've actually been on the box for 20 years this year, to the time when I started with David Frost in 1966. Cross Reports.

Frost reports with Ronnie Barker, Ronnie Corbitt, Julie Felix, Tom Lera. In those days, I was very much a frosty sidekick, and people would expect me to be around standing by David Frost. And then shortly after that, Python started, only about three years later. And then I was regarded as a great, cooky, zany, madcap. I can't remember what the other word was. Very often sort of the establishment figure who was being mocked, I mean, in Pinstrype and Boehler Hat.

But that's not what people remembered so much. although that was actually much more accurately what I did. People kind of thought of me as just being wild and unpredictable, which unfortunately I've never achieved that. Are you wild and unpredictable? No, I'm rather tame and predictable and boring, actually, rather quiet. Slightly introverted, which surprises people, but you often find that people who are slightly shy

and introverted as I think I am are able to kind of explode into action when they're given a socially sanctioned opportunity to do so, do so like they're on the stage and they damn will have to be extravert. Look out for plenty of classic view from the boundary interviews via BBC sounds. The TMS podcast, classic view from the boundary. Alan Shear and Ian Wright are in my kitchen. What's going on here?

The all-new Match of the Day Top Ten podcast, answering a huge football question every week. This has not been easy, hasn't it? Like the Top Ten Premier League strikers. Honestly, I think it's really hard to have Shear anywhere near the top 10. The Match of the Day Top 10 podcast. Only available on BBC Sounds.