Richie Benaud was the consummate broadcaster.
Impeccably dressed, well groomed, articulate and so very, very proper.
Yet he swore like a *%$#@* during The 12th Man records and it made lots of us laugh.
It was not Benaud doing the swearing, of course.
Comedian Billy Birmingham - a.k.a. The 12th Man - did that for him and, in doing so, helped turn the dapper gentleman into a cult hero.
"Marvellous effort that.''
Birmingham was in Dunedin as the headline act at the Otago Medical Research Foundation's annual dinner last night and told the Otago Daily Times "we're going to try and work out how someone makes a career out of the one joke for 30 years''.
Birmingham was selling himself short, of course, but the success of his records owed much to his parody of the former Channel Nine presenter.
"He was sort of the white knight,'' Birmingham said, slipping seamlessly into character when describing Benaud.
"He always had the cream, the bone, the white, the off-white, the ivory, the beige jacket and silver hair always perfect. And he always came across as impeccably presented, well turned out, so I wanted him swearing as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do.''
Benaud took to being lampooned quite well, initially.
"During the early years, I spoke to him on the phone a couple of times and he was gracious.
"When I had platinum records ... I made sure I gave one out to Richie to stick on the office wall.
"But I think his enthusiasm started to dwindle a bit when I impersonated his wife.
"All I did was have everything in the Benaud household as commentary speak.
"But by then they were all realising this bloody 12th Man guy is giving us this whole kind of cult following.
"Tony Greig, more than any of the other commentators, really appreciated it. He said ‘I'm telling you now, you've put an extra zero on my after dinner speaking fee'. He said ‘I'm more famous now than I would have been'. Richie was the same but to a lesser extent.
"I think what happened with Richie is he just got sick of people asking him about The 12th Man.
"He would always say, "Ah look, Billy is a very clever guy, obviously. He does a good job. I don't like all of the swearing that he uses. I don't use that sort of language ...''
"Richie was always a little bit sanctimonious in that regard. If you are worried by four-letter words ... you don't hang around cricket circles.
"Stevie Wonder can tell what Dennis Lillee was saying ... and it wasn't ‘gosh, that was a good shot mate'.''
Birmingham has no plans to record any more 12th Man records but he is open to more speaking engagements.
But the world has changed since characters like "Sunil Haveascar'' and "Cuthis Arminhalf''.
What was funny then could be viewed as offensive now.
"I think the best way to sum it up is this: back in 1984 when I first started, those names were Indian, Pakistani and Sri Lankan names. They are now Muslim names and therein lies the problem.
"These days the sensitivity about Muslim religion is just outrageous. The politically correct brigade would be all over me like spots.
"I get away with it now because it has history.''
