'At Home with Henry' - Cricket legend Blowers to host shows from his Norfolk cottage

  • Watch a full report from ITV News Anglia's Rob Setchell


For a cricket fan, it's paradise.

A treasure trove of memories, amassed over decades by one of the sport's most iconic characters - one who spent his career not on the pitch, but in the commentary box.

Henry Blofeld's cottage in Hoveton in Norfolk is rammed full of old scorecards, pictures and books - and now he's found a new way of sharing his cricketing tall tales.

He calls it 'At Home with Henry' - an idea that emerged from the frustration of seeing Covid stop play on his latest theatre tour.

Blowers launched 'At Home with Henry' when Covid stopped play on his theatre tour.

On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week (July 12, 13 & 14) he'll be broadcasting three hour-long shows - "the morning, afternoon and evening sessions" - presented from his armchair. Tickets can be bought online.

It comes four years after he commentated on his final test - a moment some had the cheek to call retirement.

"I could no more retire than fly over the moon," said Blowers. "Mercifully, I'm someone who never lives in yesterday. I always deal with tomorrow.

Blowers commentated on more than 800 test matches during a career which spanned half a century. He's written more than 20 books.

In his younger days, he dreamed of playing for England himself.

A talented batsman for Norfolk and while at university in Cambridge, his aspirations of playing international cricket were hampered when he was hit by a bus as a teenager. He spent 28 days in a coma.

"I scored a first class hundred, believe it or not," he said. "Then I got thrown out of Cambridge because I wasn't very good at exams and went and worked in the city in London, which I loathed. I did that for three years.

"Then I fell into writing about cricket for The Times. Broadcasting came 10 years later in 1972 and I was lucky. I had a good voice and I had the ability to communicate."

What Henry dubs an "ability to communicate", others would call a magic behind the microphone, a knack for capturing the joy of live sport.

Now he cherishes being a spectator, particularly as England's footballers bid for Euro 2020 glory.

"I've never been so tense and excited in my life as the end of the Germany game," he said. "It was terrific. I think it's wonderful.

"I learned my football at Carrow Road. I was a goalkeeper and I remember Ken Nethercott in goal in the 1950s.

"Sport is very important to the country and I think people who dismiss it are missing the point. They're silly."

Blowers turns 82 this year. A dear old thing? Less of the old, he says.

He's planning a new tour of his stage show. He wants to write more books and travel the world... again.

I joked that he'd be busy until he was 150.

"Oh, good heavens," he said. "I'm going on far beyond that."