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Test Match Special

The 2005 Ashes: Settling The Score

Test Match Special

BBC

Cricket, Sports News, News, Sports

4.42.2K Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

To mark the 20th anniversary of the 2005 Ashes, Test Match Special has collaborated with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra to tell the story of the greatest series of all time.

Through a specially curated playlist performed by the Philharmonic, TMS archive, and narration from legendary actor Charles Dance, we’re taken back to a time when the nation went cricket mad.

Glenn McGrath treading on the ball, the thrilling finish at Edgbaston, thousands locked out at Old Trafford, Gary Pratt’s runout of Ricky Ponting, and that famous final day at the Oval are all remembered, as is the bus journey through London the day after.

And there’s also space for the Philharmonic’s performance of BBC Cricket iconic theme music – Soul Limbo.

Music performed:

SCENESET: Sergei Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet, Montagues and Capulets LORD’S: Camille Pepin: Les Eaux Celestes for orchestra, movements 2 & 3 EDGBASTON: Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5, last movement INTERLUDE: John Adams: Tromba Lontana OLD TRAFFORD: Gustav Holst: The Planets, Uranus TRENT BRIDGE: John Adams: Short Ride in a Fast Machine SHANE WARNE INTERLUDE: Igor Stravinsky: Petrushka, The Shrovetide Fair, Dance of the Coachmen and Grooms OVAL: Hubert Parry, arr. Elgar: Jerusalem

and

Felix Mendelssohn: Symphony no. 3, 4th movement CELEBRATIONS/TRAFALGAR SQUARE: Georges Bizet: Carmen, prelude REFLECTIONS: Thomas Ades: Arcadiana, Movement 6, O Albion CREDITS: Soul Limbo, arr. Peter Willmott

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Get closer to the action with live commentary from the world's greatest sporting events on BBC Sounds.

0:06.0

It is all over!

0:08.0

Bulls are an edge, caught behind.

0:10.0

Including cricket Super League, Women's Euro's 2025, Wimbledon, Formula One and much more.

0:17.0

It's all right to the lights and foot to the floor.

0:20.0

Oh, what's's done it!

0:21.4

Drop shots!

0:23.0

Winner!

0:23.6

On five sports extra,

0:25.1

sports extra two and sports extra three.

0:27.7

Listen, only on BBC Sounds.

0:31.4

BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

0:35.8

It started in smoke.

0:53.9

The burning of the bails. The burning of the bales, the start of a rivalry that would smolder, spit and erupt for more than a century.

1:02.0

Two nations alike in dignity, but wrenched apart by history.

1:07.0

Behind them scorched earth, the dust of a thousand scraps, the embers of once blazing

1:13.6

contests, empire and exile, old and new, bat and ball. Bodyline, Bradman, Botham, Bettland. And within these boundaries are a cast of makers, breakers and earth shakers.

1:36.3

Lands, thousands of miles distant, drawn to stand 22 claustrophobic yards apart.

1:50.4

A test of heart, of nerve, of skill, of strength, of conscience.

1:53.5

Five tests.

1:55.1

Play.

2:03.0

No, is it the ashes?

...

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