Ex-Stunter

For three years, Brian Johnston was a model British Broadcasting Corp. announcer, specializing in cricket and theater commentary. Then, in 1948, he started a show called Let's Go Somewhere and, microphone in hand, carried his thrilled listeners through a wall of barrels on a motorcycle going 40 m.p.h. or swung in an aerial ballet 90 feet above the ground. He thrilled his audience even more by letting himself be locked overnight in Madame Tussaud's waxwork Chamber of Horrors and describing his surroundings with an authentic quaver in his voice. Said a fan: "The wonderful attraction of Johnston is that one knows he is really frightened. One feels just what he must be feeling."

Though his stunts have included breakneck rides in fire engines, racing cars and tanks, Johnston's narrowest escape came last spring when he placed a small advertisement in the London Evening News inviting "young ladies seeking adventure'' to meet him in lower Regent Street. At the appointed hour, Johnston was swamped by 1,000 adventure-minded females, who blocked traffic in Piccadilly Circus. He finally had to be rescued by police.

Last week, after being picked up from a dinghy in the English Channel by a helicopter, Johnston suddenly announced that he was through with stunting and would go back to cricket. "Frankly, old man," he told a reporter, "I hate danger."

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