Murray Walker

Murray Walker (1923-2021) was a British motorsport commentator whose voice became inseparable from Formula One coverage on British television for more than half a century. Born Graeme Murray Walker in Birmingham, he served as a tank commander with the Royal Scots Greys in the Second World War, taking part in the advance through northwest Europe in 1944 and 1945.

After the war he joined the Dunlop Rubber Company and then the advertising agency Masius, where he rose to become a director while building a parallel career as a freelance broadcaster. He had grown up at race meetings watching his father Graham Walker, a former works motorcycle rider and BBC commentator, and made his own commentary debut on motorcycle racing in 1949.

He covered Grand Prix motor racing for the BBC from 1976 and continued with ITV when the rights moved in 1997, retiring from full-time commentary at the United States Grand Prix in 2001. His pairings, first with James Hunt and later with Martin Brundle, set the template for two-voice race coverage. The breathless, near-shouting delivery and the verbal slips he later christened "Murrayisms" became part of the pleasure for British viewers.

He was appointed OBE in 1996 for services to motor racing and broadcasting, published the memoir Unless I'm Very Much Mistaken in 2002, and continued to make occasional appearances at race tracks until shortly before his death at ninety-seven.

The given name Murray comes from a Scottish surname rooted in the region of Moray in northeast Scotland, ultimately from a Pictish-Gaelic word meaning "sea settlement." He carried it from his middle name into the front rank of British sports broadcasting.