Murray Walker

Graeme Murray Walker, OBE (known as Murray Walker; born October 10 1923, Hall Green, Birmingham, England) is a Formula One (F1) motorsport commentator. He was educated at Highgate School and Sandhurst, and for most of his career he worked for the BBC, but when it lost the contract for F1 coverage to the company ITV, Walker continued his commentating there.

He is famous in the United Kingdom for his very distinctive enthusiastic commentary style. He regularly made comments (known to many as Walkerisms or Murrayisms) in the heat of the moment that, upon analysis a moment later, were ridiculous; for example, as a car arrived for a pit stop during a race he once said "...I'll stop the startwatch!". He was also an exponent of the commentator's curse, describing how well a driver was racing or that they would win the race, only to have them retire or crash out of the race shortly thereafter.

1 Career
2 See also
3 References
4 Related Articles
- 4.1 Recent Murray Walker ArmchairGM Stories

[edit] Career

Walker made his debut in 1949 alongside Max Robertson. He commentated on Formula 1 through to the 2001 United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis. Since his retirement many have missed his distinctive voice, which seemed to rise and fall in tone along with the revving of the car engines.

He also wrote a series of annuals for the Grand Prix season, Murray Walker's Grand Prix Year, for Hazelton Publishing from 1987 to 1997.

Walker spent most of his working life in advertising, only commentating full-time after he had passed retirement age. Despite what many people believe, he did not coin the iconic solgan "A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play" although he did create other slogans well-known in the UK, such as "Trill makes budgies bounce with health" and for Opal Fruits "made to make your mouth water". Perhaps more generally known was his Pizza Hut television advertisement with British racing driver Damon Hill, where, having finished eating his pizza before Damon, he announced "Damon Hill finishes second... again!". More recently he has provided a voice-over on an advert for the Beaulieu Motor Museum.

On his retirement Walker was awarded an original brick from "The Brickyard" (the Indianapolis Motor Speedway) by track president Tony George.

In November 1997, Murray Walker was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters Degree from Bournemouth University. He was later honoured, in July 2005, with an Honorary Doctorate from the Middlesex University, London.

In October 2005, it was announced that Walker would be returning to the microphone as the BBC's voice of the new Grand Prix Masters series. After providing the commentary for the inaugural race in South Africa, in January 2006 BBC Radio Five Live announced that Walker would be part of their team for their coverage of subsequent races.

In March 2006, the Honda Team, announced that Walker would become its team ambassador for half of the 2006 season's 18 Grands Prix, starting with the San Marino Grand Prix in April. Walker welcomed Honda Racing's VIP guests and entertained them with his unique brand of F1 commentary.

In March 2006 Walker returned to the microphone for the Clipsal 500 V8 Supercar round in Adelaide and in April he commentated the Australian Grand Prix for Australia's Formula One broadcaster Network Ten. He is also Sky Sports' commentator on their coverage of Grand Prix Masters.

In March 2007 Walker again returned to the microphone for the Clipsal 500 V8 Supercar round, and was awarded a Lifetime Infinite Pass to the event by organisers at a ceremony on pit straight, shortly before the main race. In March 2007 he was again part of Network Ten’s commentary team for the Australian Grand Prix.