Murray Walker

Graeme Murray Walker (10 October 1923 – 13 March 2021) was an English motorsport commentator and journalist. He provided television commentary of live Formula One coverage for the BBC between 1976 and 1996, and for ITV between 1997 and 2001.

During his 23-year run as full-time commentator, Walker became known for his animated enthusiasm, authoritative voice and comical blunders – dubbed "Murrayisms" by fans – during live races. His commentary voice has been likened to a "screech and resembles a 500cc engine being revved up". He retired from full-time commentary after the 2001 United States Grand Prix, but returned to broadcasting part-time in 2005 and made occasional appearances on the BBC, Channel 4, Network 10 and Sky Sports F1.

Early life

Graeme Murray Walker was born at 214 Reddings Lane in Hall Green, Birmingham, England, on 10 October 1923. His family is of Scottish descent. His father Graham Walker was a despatch rider and works motorcyclist for the Norton Motorcycle Company who participated in the Isle of Man TT. His mother, Elsie Spratt, was the daughter of Harry Spratt, a businessman from Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire. Walker was an only child. In 1925 Walker and his family moved to Wolverhampton when Graham became the Competition Manager for Sunbeam. The family later moved to Coventry in 1928, when Graham worked as the Sales and Competition Director for Rudge-Whitworth.

Walker's education began with a governess at the family home, followed by spells at preparatory schools around the country. He attended Highgate School, gaining a Distinction in Divinity. While at Highgate he joined the School Corps, learning to play the bugle. Walker was at a trials event with his father in Austria when the outbreak of the Second World War occurred in September 1939. Upon returning to Britain, the Highgate School governors became concerned about the possible extent of bombing raids on London, and so Walker and his fellow pupils were evacuated to Westward Ho! in Devon, staying there until 1941. During this time, Walker rose to the rank of Company Sergeant Major of the School Corps.

Walker was later conscripted into the armed forces and applied to volunteer for tanks, but was required to wait until a training place became available. In the meantime, he worked with the Dunlop Rubber Company, which offered 12 scholarships annually and was based at Fort Dunlop in Erdington, Birmingham. Walker had been evacuated to Erdington and lived with the Bellamy family at 58 Holly Lane. On 1 October 1942 he travelled to Wool in Dorset, where he reported to the 30th Primary Training Wing at Bovington, the headquarters of the Royal Armoured Corps.

Walker later attended and graduated from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the Royal Scots Greys on 16 April 1944. The salute at his commissioning parade was taken by American General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Allied Commander for the upcoming Allied invasion of Normandy. Walker went on to command a Sherman tank and to participate in the Battle of the Reichswald with the 4th Armoured Brigade. He left the Army in 1946, having attained the rank of captain.

Following the war, Walker briefly followed in his father's footsteps by taking up motorcycle racing, competing against, among others, a young John Surtees. After limited success, he switched to competing in motorcycle trials, where he made a greater mark, including taking a gold at the International Six Days Trial and winning a first-class award at the Scottish Six Days Trial.

After briefly attending Roehampton Technical Institute to study shipping management, Walker worked in advertising for Dunlop and Aspro. He was then headhunted by McCann Erickson, where he worked on the firm's account with Esso. Following this, he was employed as an accounts director by the Masius advertising agency, with clients including British Rail, Vauxhall and Mars, for whom the agency created the slogan "A Mars a day helps you work rest and play"; Walker repeatedly denied the attribution of the slogan to himself, saying that he was only an administrator on the project. He did not make the decision to retire from his job in advertising until 1982, long after he had gained fame as a commentator.

Walker created the slogan "Trill makes budgies bounce with health" – an advertising slogan for bird seed in the 1960s – as well as the slogan "Opal Fruits, made to make your mouth water." He is credited with the naming of the late 1960s Vauxhall Ventora, with the car's original proposed name, Ventura, being rejected by General Motors.

Career as a commentator

Walker made his first public broadcast at Shelsley Walsh hillclimb in 1948. He was given a recorded audition for the BBC at the 1949 Easter Monday Goodwood race. Walker later commentated on races alongside the tennis commentator Max Robertson, with his first radio broadcasting coming at the 1949 British Grand Prix for the BBC. He and Robertson were positioned at Stowe corner for the event. His debut television broadcast came in the same year when he commentated on hill-climbing at the Knatts Valley motorcycle venue in Kent. His first regular broadcasting work was on radio coverage of the Isle of Man annual Tourist Trophy motorcycle race alongside his father. Walker and his father were the single father and son sports commentary pair within the BBC from 1949 to 1962. After the death of his father in 1962, he became the BBC's chief motorcycling commentator.

He did occasional Formula 1 commentaries during the 1970s before going full-time for the 1978 season. Walker was asked by the head of BBC Sport Paul Fox to commentate on the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championships in Bristol, and he asked the weightlifter Oscar Slate to educate him on the sport. He covered the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1967, motocross (initially for ITV and BBC) during the 1960s and rallycross in the 1970s and early 1980s. He occasionally commentated on scrambling (now motocross) motorcycle racing and rallying during the 1960s through to the 1980s. Walker covered the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) for the BBC between 1969 and 1971 and also 1988 and 1997, and the Macau Grand Prix for Hong Kong TV on nine occasions. He joined the Channel 7 commentary team of the Bathurst 1000 Australian touring car race in 1997 and 1998. As the BBC began to broadcast additional forms of motor racing, he commented on Formula 3, Formula Ford and truck racing.

On Formula One coverage from the 1980 Monaco Grand Prix to the 1993 Canadian Grand Prix, Walker struck up a surprisingly successful, and extremely popular, double act with 1976 World Champion James Hunt. Initially, they did not get on, as Hunt's interests, personality and private life appeared to have little in common with Walker's. However, the pair eventually became good friends. Walker and Hunt were to work together for more than a decade at the BBC, until Hunt's death from a heart attack two days after the 1993 Canadian Grand Prix, aged 45.

When in the commentary booth together, Walker would provide his animated descriptions of the action, with Hunt bringing in his expert knowledge, which included inside information from the pit lane, typically from his former team McLaren, and often opinionated nature, in his co-commentary role. The pair did not always get along in the commentary box. Typically, they had to share one microphone which meant passing it back and forth to each other. On one occasion early in their partnership, Walker would not hand the microphone over after repeated requests by Hunt for him to do so. In frustration, Hunt stood and grabbed the microphone from him, which caused the normally cool Walker to grab the former World Champion by the collar and raise his fist to hit his partner before a producer intervened.

After Hunt died, former F1 driver and BBC pit lane reporter Jonathan Palmer joined Walker in the commentary box until the end of 1996, though in 1993 individuals such as three-time world champion Jackie Stewart took the role as Walker's partner for the 1993 British Grand Prix and 1980 World Champion Alan Jones commented alongside Walker in Australia at the end of the season following a request by Nine's Wide World of Sports. The following year, the television rights of the UK television coverage transferred to ITV, and Walker followed. His co-commentator from the 1997 season until his retirement from commentating was another former F1 driver, Martin Brundle.

Jonathan Martin, the head of BBC Sport, retained Walker's services for the corporation's coverage of the BTCC after the latter's rolling contract expired with them in May 1997. Walker opted not to renew his contract with the BBC in 1998 to focus on ITV's broadcasting on Formula One and he did not want to frequently commute to London to record commentary of the BTCC. There were a few Grands Prix between 1978 and 1996 that Walker did not commentate on while employed by the BBC, usually as a result of his commentating elsewhere. Some of these included the 1979 Belgian Grand Prix and 1988 Hungarian Grand Prix (when Simon Taylor deputised for him), the German Grands Prix of 1981 and 1984 (both commentated on by Barrie Gill), and the 1985 German Grand Prix (Tony Jardine).