A Son of the Rock

I’ve just seen on the news that Murray Walker for so long the voice of motor sport on British television has died.

I remember his distinctive voice commentating on Motocross (formerly known as motorcycle scrambling) in the 1960s on the BBC’s Grandstand; itself sadly long gone.

It was as a commentator on Formula 1, though, for which he was best known, for both the BBC and ITV in a stint lasting over twenty years. After his retirement the sport somehow never felt the same. Shockingly, that commentating retirement was itself twenty years ago.

He was one of those few characters associated with a particular sport whose fame and personality allowed them to transcend it.

Graeme Murray Walker: 10/10/1923 – 13/3/2021. So it goes.