<P> He was also part of the radio commentating team for major state occasions such as the funeral of King George VI in 1952, the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, the Sovereign's annual birthday parade, the annual El Alamein reunion and in due course the royal weddings of Princess Margaret, Princess Anne and the Prince of Wales . He also appeared on other radio programmes such as Sporting Chance, Treble Chance, Twenty Questions, Married To Fame, Hancock's Half Hour and occasionally as an outside broadcast interviewer for the Today programme . </P> <P> Johnston became a regular member of the TV commentary team and, in addition, became BBC cricket correspondent in 1963 . In that year he also met and mentored his future TMS colleague the late Christopher Martin - Jenkins, who sought his advice about how to become a cricket commentator while still at school . 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 and he retired from the BBC two years later on his sixtieth birthday . However, he continued to appear in a freelance capacity as a member of the team for the radio broadcasts, Test Match Special (TMS) for the next 22 years . 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 Bill Frindall ("the Bearded Wonder") as "Bearders"). He once complained on air that he had missed his cake at tea during one match, and was subsequently inundated with cakes from listeners . The TMS team has continued to receive cakes from listeners ever since . </P> <P> In 1972 he was asked to stand in as the host of the long - running Sunday evening radio programme Down Your Way (first broadcast in 1946) when Franklin Engelmann, who had hosted the programme since 1953, died very suddenly . He went on to host a further ten editions before leaving to commence his last full - time summer as the BBC cricket correspondent . He was compulsorily retired from the BBC in September of that year having reached his 60th birthday . He was then contracted in a freelance capacity to host Down Your Way on a permanent basis since four other hosts trialled over the summer had proved to be less popular than him . He went on to present this programme for 15 years before bowing out on his 733rd show (equalling Engelmann's tenure) in May 1987 just before his 75th birthday . The final show featured Lord's Cricket Ground and included an interview with his old friend Denis Compton . A valedictory photograph was taken showing Johnston standing in front of the Lord's scoreboard, which showed 733 under the icon of Last Man to commemorate the event . </P> <P> Thereafter the programme continued to be broadcast for a further five years, with a different celebrity host every week, before it was finally taken off the air in 1992 . </P>

The batsman holding the bowler's willey clip