Murray Walker - A life in motorsport

The death of legendary Formula 1 commentator Murray Walker, aged 97, led to an outpouring of tributes, underlining how much of an admired figure he was in the world of motorsport.

For many people, he was – and always will be – the voice of Formula 1. If you’ve ever tried commentating on anything you’ll know it is something of an art – not that Murray saw it that way. He once described the job as being like “standing in the living room excitedly describing what you can see out of the window while your wife gives you a furious earful about coming home drunk with a pair of knickers in your pocket”.

This summed up Murray somewhat – a humble and modest man who never really acknowledged the huge part he played in creating some of motorsport’s most iconic moments.

Who could forget Murray saying “I've got to stop now, because I've got a lump in my throat" as Britain's Damon Hill won the 1996 Japanese Grand Prix? Also, his only World Championship.

Murray was also capable of the odd unintentionally amusing line, such as "The car in front is absolutely unique except for the one behind it which is identical" and “There's nothing wrong with the car except it's on fire". It was this colourful commentary which made him unique and much-loved by all and sundry. He said his brief was “not just to inform but to entertain”, and he did just that.

In this tribute piece to Murray Walker, we look at how he came to be a motorsport icon ‘simply’ by wielding a commentary mic.

His father’s influence

Born on 10th October 1923, Murray’s enthusiasm for motor racing was inherited from his father, Graham, who was a top motorcycle racer in the 1920s and 30s. He won a number of big races including the 250 Lightweight Isle of Man TT in 1931 and the 1928 Ulster Grand Prix.

Murray was very proud of his father’s achievements. In a 2017 interview with Autocar, which took place at Murray’s house, journalist Steve Cropley remarked on how Murray was keen to show him his father’s TT medals.

Graham’s achievements went beyond motorcycle racing. After retiring from the saddle, he became the editor of the struggling Motor Cycling magazine, turning it into a market leader. This feat caught the attention of the BBC who, in 1938, invited Graham to commentate on all of its motorbike racing. Murray, of course, was to follow in his father’s footsteps, but not before doing his bit as a serviceman in World War II.

Juggling jobs

Graduating from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1939, he was commissioned into the Royal Scots Greys. He would go on to command a Sherman Tank and participate in the Battle of the Reichswald with the 4th Armoured Brigade, rising to the rank of Captain.

After peace was declared in 1945, Murray worked in advertising for Dunlop and Aspro. He held this job until the age of 59, long after he had made his name as a commentator.

He also briefly competed in motorcycle races himself, although, by his own admission, he didn’t have the same talent as his father. “I was reasonable-to-good club standard although I had delusions of grandeur,” he told the Guardian.

Murray’s first commentary came about in 1948, with a little help from his father. He described the action at the Shelsley Walsh hillclimb, with his “non-stop barrage of facts, figures, hysteria and opinion” – as Murray called it – attracting the attention of a BBC producer.

Just a year later, he would be offered the opportunity to be the co-commentator, alongside Max Robertson, for the BBC’s radio coverage of the 1949 British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

It was an eventful race, with the most dramatic moment seeing British driver John Bolster spinning off the track at Stowe Corner – right in front of the commentary box – and rolling end-over-end which caused his car to burst into flames. “I thought he was probably dead,” Murray recalled. But, thankfully, despite some nasty injuries, Bolster recovered. He would later go on to become part of the BBC’s Formula 1 team as a pit lane commentator.

Moving into Formula 1

Motorcycling commentary opportunities came thick and fast for Murray throughout the 1950s, and it wasn’t long before he and his father would team up, becoming the “best double act in the business on both radio and television”.

Murray became the specialist in the TV coverage of motocross, rallycross, Formula 3, truck racing and offshore powerboat racing. However, Raymond Baxter remained the BBC’s leading voice of four-wheeled motorsport through the 50s, 60s and 70s, so Murray had to wait for his chance to get the ‘big gigs’.

In 1978, with the BBC making plans to cover every race of the Formula 1 World Championship, Murray was asked to provide commentary for the coverage, which then was a highlights show. For the first couple of years, it was just Murray describing the action. But in 1979, the BBC proposed that he should be accompanied by former Formula 1 World Champion James Hunt.

Murray was not particularly enamoured with the idea. “When I was told in 1979 that there were now going to be two commentators, and that the other one was going to be James Hunt, I was not at all happy, to put it mildly,” he told the Guardian. “I regarded James Hunt as a drunken Hooray Henry – which he was at the time.”

With the two commentators having to share a microphone – to ensure they didn’t talk over each other – it looked like a recipe for disaster. Things didn’t get off to the best start either, with the two nearly coming to blows when Murray refused to hand over the microphone after repeated requests by Hunt for him to do so. Thankfully, a producer intervened before it came to blows.

But, in time, the pair proved a wonderful double act, working together until Hunt’s premature death in 1993. Many believe the commentary provided by the twosome is unmatched, having set the standard both for information and entertainment.

Talking about their unique relationship, Murray said he and Hunt “were never exactly best mates”, but they “learnt to work well together”. You could say that again!

In addition to his F1 commentaries, Murray covered British Touring Car Championship for BBC Grandstand from 1988, providing his typically frenetic commentary on racing that was full of drama. Again, much like Formula 1 fans, many long-time BTCC enthusiasts believe the ‘Murray years’ to be the Championship’s heyday.

Murray wasn’t just the expert of hyperbolic excitement; he could also adopt a more sombre tone when the moment called for it. Whilst most of us looked on, stunned, watching the pictures showing the immediate aftermath of Ayrton Senna’s fatal accident at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix at Imola, Murray – who was working alongside Jonathan Palmer – still managed to find the right words.

In 1997, the BBC lost its coverage of Formula 1 to ITV. However, the new broadcaster was in no doubt: it needed Murray on board. He accepted ITV’s offer (how could he not?) and was paired with Martin Brundle. It proved to be another inspired partnership – it’s just a shame it didn’t last a little longer.

Murray’s final race in the commentary box was the 2001 United States Grand Prix held at Indianapolis just 19 days after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Refusing to retire

But he wasn’t quite ready to put the mic down completely. In 2005, at the age of 81, he made a return to commentating as part of the BBC’s coverage of the new Grand Prix Masters series. He also commentated on the 2007 European Grand Prix for BBC Radio 5 Live, and would pop back from time to time to chip in alongside the BBC F1 team of Jake Humphrey, Eddie Jordan, David Coulthard and former colleague Brundle.

You get the impression Murray would’ve continued commentating all of his life, if he could. “I know I could still do it, but I don't think I could keep it up for the whole season with all the travelling,” he told the Guardian in 2009.

His enthusiasm for racing remained undimmed until the end. In that 2017 interview with Autocar, this was very apparent.

“He’s fully briefed on yesterday’s qualifying times and is much more up to speed with the minutiae of the contest than I am,” Cropley wrote in his piece. “He fearlessly declares a preference for a Sebastian Vettel-Ferrari win (“because F1 needs Ferrari to be strong”), zeroes in on the potential race between the Mercedes drivers (“Bottas will want to beat Vettel to second in the championship”), expresses a hope that Renault will take sixth in the constructors’ championship over Toro Rosso and Haas (“they need to demonstrate results from all the investment”) and hopes Daniel Ricciardo can score enough points to come fourth in the drivers’ championship.”

Nobody ever had a bad word to say about Murray. In fact, the number of glowing comments made about the great man in the days after his death mean it’s hard to sum up just what made him such a remarkable person.

However, perhaps it was Hill, who Murray was very fond of and once called him “one of the most intelligent people I've met in Formula 1”, who summed it up best.

He said: "Maybe old soldiers never die? His legacy and his memory is so strong, and what he gave to so many Formula 1 fans and the number of people he affected, he became bigger than the sport, so we have got a lot to be thankful to Murray for.

"He could emote the events that happened in our sport. The shocking moments and the dramatic moments all have Murray's reaction to them and he made those events stick in your mind forever.

"And he allowed himself not to be the know-it-all commentator, but the fan who, at times, got over excited."

That sums Murray up as well as anything could. He is survived by Elizabeth, his wife of more than 60 years.

Murray Walker fun facts

• During his appearance on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs on 16th March 2014, he chose Chris McNab's How to Survive Anything, Anywhere: A Handbook of Survival Skills for Every Scenario and Environment as the book he would take to the island, alongside a hammock and pillow as his luxury items.
• In 2009, he provided the voice of his own character in two episodes of the Five children's television programme Roary the Racing Car. He made a further appearance on the programme a year later as a professional skateboarder.
• In 2008, he was given the honour of a Star on the Walk of Stars on Broad Street, in his hometown of Birmingham.
• Murray was the subject of a BBC Two documentary called Life in the Fast Lane which documented his life career – it was broadcast on 5th June 2011.
• After announcing he was to write his autobiography, he had eight publishers competing to put out the book. He did the contract negotiations himself, opting for HarperCollins who published Unless I'm Very Much Mistaken in late 2002.
• It was announced in the 1996 Birthday Honours that Murray would be appointed an OBE for services to broadcasting and motorsport.

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