Product Description

A celebration of three decades of cricket and a unique insight into the world of radio and broadcasting. Test Match Special is both a sporting and broadcasting institution that has become synonymous with the British summertime. Since its first live broadcast back in 1957 it has proudly lived up to its original slogan 'Don't miss a Ball, we broadcast them all'. During much of this time the man behind the scenes was Peter Baxter and here he recalls the best moments and characters from his privileged perspective inside the commentary box. Throughout this period, Peter Baxter worked alongside the legendary John Arlott, the inimitable Brian Johnston and the unforgettable Henry Blofield and ushered in new faces, such as Jonathan Agnew, who continue to entertain, inform and charm listeners today. Test Match Special is the personal, touching and at times, hilariously funny, account of the producer's time 'inside the box'.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #19789 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-05
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Review
'Baxter's Test Match Special memoir to knock fans for six.' --The Bookseller

His memoir is as witty and engaging as you would expect - a lovely insight into the nation's most soothing institution'. --The Observer

June Book of the Month...this book is wonderful. All the larger than life characters we know and love are revealingly described..and numerous previously untold tales of their exploits are divulged. --All Out Cricket

About the Author
Peter Baxter has spent a lifetime in radio broadcasting, including thirty four years as producer of Test Match Special. Peter Baxter retired from broadcasting June 19th, 2007.

Customer Reviews

An enjoyable experience "Inside The Box"
Great broadcasting institutions are bourn out of teamwork; whether it's the writers, actors, presenters; or in the case of Test Match Special, the commentators and expert summarisers who are the eyes and ears of the listener during the five days of a test match. Good teams need a leader, and between 1973 and 1997 that job fell to Peter Baxter, who, with the help of Shilpa Patel and others has moulded the team into what it has become today.

The book's strength is that without any broadcasting or technical jargon, one gets a very good insight into the production of one of the most enduring sports broadcasts.

Peter Baxter inherited a good team, including John Arlott, Brian Johnston, E. W. Swanton, Bill Frindall and Norman Yardley. The author and publishers are to be commended on the inclusion in the book of Frindall's untimely death in Dubai at the end of January. There is a nice reference to John Arlott taking Frindall under his wing when the scorer took over in 1966. Arlott apparently said to him "You like driving, I like drinking. We're going to get on very well".

And that is the book's charm. Little vignettes which give the reader an insight into the personalities of the people who become "friends" via the radio but who they are unlikely to ever get to know personally.

Peter Baxter talks with enthusiasm about the "pillars of TMS" Jonathan Agnew, Christopher Martin-Jenkins (who, had Angus McKay, the one time editor of the BBC sports desk had his way, might now be known as "Chris Jenkins"!) and Henry Blofeld. Then there are the newcomers such as Simon Mann; the experts such as Mike Selvey and Vic Marks; and the foreign friends such as Tony Cozier, Jim Maxwell and Brian Waddle.

The future of TMS has not always been assured, and Peter Baxter has spent some time fighting his programme's corner with his peers and masters within the BBC. He, as many of the programme's listeners, believe that TMS should be the province of the best commentators, as opposed to perfectly competent staff commentators. Not everybody within the BBC shares that view; and it will be interesting to see whether in a few years time, the programme's current producer Adam Mountford is able to write as enjoyable an account of his time "Inside The Box" as has Peter Baxter.

A Test Match Special Lover's Delight
I bought this book as a Fathers' Day present for my Dad, having read a glowing review of it in the Daily Mail. My father has always watched the cricket on TV with the sound turned down, preferring instead to listen to the commentary from TMS.
He took this book on holiday with him and said it was delightful to pick up and dip into (he is quite a 'serious' reader)and there are some real 'laugh out loud' bits.
It will probably appeal to people 'of a certain age' and of course you need to be a TMS fan to identify the characters etc. If you've got a relative who really loves their cricket and tunes in, would well recommend.

Behind the scenes @ TMS
Peter Baxter enjoyed a very long stint as Producer of that cornerstone of a British Summertime, the national treasure that is BBC Radio's TEST MATCH SPECIAL and with this he has written a rather splendid book about his long association with it.

But there's rather more to old Bartex than TMS. Over a long and varied career he has also done production duties on many other sports including Rugby, Golf, the University Boat Race, the Olympic games and even (it seems to the author's own astonishment) Football as well as many other Outside Broadcasts including Royal Weddings and State Funerals and the like. The book itself starts with his quite moving description of his final Test Match as Producer and then moves back to the beginning of his broadcasting career before coming full circle and closing with his fondest memories (or "Champagne Moments" if you prefer) from watching this most fascinating of games. Along the way you are introduced to the greats of Cricket broadcasting - from much missed legends like John Arlott and Brian Johnston to current greats like Jonathan Agnew, Christopher Martin-Jenkins and the mighty Henry Blofeld as well as many, many more. Happy (and sometimes laugh out loud funny) memories flow freely alongside the more frustrating difficulties that come from trying very hard to get any kind of programme on the air from some of the more remote corners of the globe, but the darker side of sport, politics and the complexities of the modern broadcasting world are not shied away from.

Naturally this sort of book appeals to a particular kind of reader and you might just need to have more than a passing familiarity with the recent history of test match cricket to be up to speed with some of the references. However, if you like TMS or if you like "behind the scenes" stories you'll probably find a lot to enjoy in this book. Some might find the style a little too uncontroversial - this is no damning expose after all - or the anecdotes might not go into quite enough detail for the more forensic of analysts but as a generally jolly overview of a long and (mostly) happy career, it makes a pretty good read, and if you've ever enjoyed the apparently effortless ease of TMS on a lazy summer's afternoon, this book might just surprise you with how much effort that effortlessness requires to make it work so well.