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The Twelfth Man (also known as The 12th Man) is the name for a series of comedy productions by Australian satirist Billy Birmingham. Birmingham, a skilled impersonator, is generally known for parodying Australian sports commentators' voices. As befits the name (a reference to the non-playing reserve in an eleven-player cricket side), Birmingham particularly focuses on cricket commentators such as Richie Benaud, Bill Lawry and Tony Greig. This is also because many of Australia's cricket commentators have distinctive and easily identifiable voices and accents. The parodies, released periodically on CD, are designed as a comical look "behind the scenes" of the Nine Network's cricket commentary. Birmingham traditionally plays all the roles (with the exception of Ken Sutcliffe, who played himself; and some minor female characters, such as Richie Benaud's secretary). Benaud himself sent a critique of each CD to Birmingham and was known to have a mixed opinion of the recordings, due predominantly to Birmingham's use of profanity.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ybr21gxdJU )〕 All albums were produced and engineered by David Frogatt. The 12th Man's most popular song is "Marvellous!" featuring all the main three commentators. It was first recorded as a single in 1991, with backing vocals by Jimmy Barnes, John Farnham, Diesel and Glenn Shorrock among others. An updated version, with some of the commentators changed, was featured on ''Still the 12th Man''. He has since released an updated version of the song entitled "Marvellous 2006" on his latest album ''Boned!''. It can be heard at the 12th Man's MySpace. In an article in the ''Sydney Morning Herald'' on 22 November 2009, Birmingham announced that ''Boned!'' would be his last studio album as The Twelfth Man. ==Personalities parodied== In addition to Richie Benaud himself, Tony Greig and Bill Lawry, 12th Man features various other Australian commentators from throughout Channel Nine's line-up. They include Max Walker, Mark "Tubby" Taylor, Ian "Chappelli" Chappell, Ian's brother Greg Chappell, Michael "Slats" Slater, Englishman Mark Nicholas, West Indian Michael Holding and Ian Maurice. Several non-cricket commentators are also parodied by Birmingham. They include rugby league commentators Ray "Rabbits" Warren and Paul "Fatty" Vautin, Peter "Sterlo" Sterling, Steve Roach, Darrell Eastlake, Lou Richards, Jack "Supercoach" Gibson, Ian "Bear" Maurice, Mike "Gibbo" Gibson and horse racing commentator Ken Callander. Other figures from Australian culture are also parodied. They include media magnate and Channel Nine owner Kerry Packer, former Prime Minister John Howard, journalist Mike Munro, music journalist Andrew G and talkback radio personality Alan Jones. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Twelfth Man」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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