Test Match Special - TMS Commentators

TMS Commentators

In a test match three or four commentators and three or four summarisers are used in rotation; each commentator 'sits in' before the microphone for 20 minutes, and each summariser for 30 minutes, at a time. The voices of the TMS commentators have become part of the sound of an English summer, and there is a tradition of the commentators being referred to by nicknames (often based on the first syllable of their surname, plus the syllable "-ers"). They have included:

• EW Swanton (1938–1975)
• Rex Alston (1945–1964)
• John Arlott (1946–1980)
• Ken Ablack (1950–1962)
• Robert Hudson (1958–1968)
• Peter West (1958)
• Alan Gibson (1962–1975)
• Peter Cranmer (1965, 1968 - 2 matches only)
• Brian Johnston ("Johnners") (1966–1993)
• Neil Durden-Smith (1969–1974)
• Don Mosey ("The Alderman") (1974–1991)
• Tony Lewis ("ARL") (1977–1985)
• Jack Bannister (1988–1994)
• Arlo White (2005–2007)

Current TMS commentators include:

• Christopher Martin-Jenkins ("CMJ") (1973–)
• Henry Blofeld ("Blowers") (1974–1991, 1994–)
• Jonathan Agnew ("Aggers") (1991–)
• Simon Mann (1996–)
• Simon Hughes (2007–)
• Jim Maxwell (2005–present) Ashes test series