A View from the Boundary:
Test Match Special
On the Saturday of a Test Match in England, it is customary for one of the Test Match Special team to interview a well-known
person interested in cricket. Past guests have included ex-P.M. John Major, the playwright Ben Travers, John Cleese, Eric Idle,
Alan Ayckbourn, Tom Stoppard ....
Many of these broadcasts exist only as private recordings. If you have any, and would like to donate them to a safe
archive - or would like to exchange some, please email. So far as I know, hardly any of these interviews have
been retained by the BBC archive. Most of the earlier ones were done by Brian Johnston.
The ones in the VRPCC archive at the time of writing are listed below.
1980 Ben Travers, playwright
1985 Alan McGilvray, TMS commentator, interviewed by C. Martin-Jenkins
1986 John Cleese, actor and comedian
1987 Tim Brooke-Taylor, actor and comedian
1987 Christopher Lee, actor
1987 Lord Runcie
1987 Michael Parkinson
1987 Michael Charlton
1987 John Alderton, actor
1989 John Kettley, weather man
1993 Paul Getty
1994 Eric Idle
1994 Peter Davison, actor
1994 Alan Ayckbourn, playwright
1997 Kevin Conley, impressionist
1999 Oz Clarke, wine writer
2000 Penelope Keith, actress
2002 Bill Deedes, ex-M.P. and columnist
2002 Stephen Fry, actor
2002 Ron Eddington
2007 Nicholas Parsons
compiled by Nigel Deacon / Diversity website
