Murray Walker - Former Formula One Commentator extratime

is heavy, industrial activity. Understanding the potential impact

on the countryside matters more than ever. The next round of government

licences to allow drilling is expected soon. Today, extratime has

come to Hampshire in the English countryside to meet at one of

motorsport's commentators. He built a reputation for delivering verbal

gaffes. I don't make mistakes, he once said, I make prophecies that

turn out to be immediately wrong. With the British Grand Prix at

Silverstone coming up this weekend, we talked to former broadcasting

icon, Murray Walker. Murray Walker, welcome to this

edition of extratime. You made your name with commentary for Formula 1.

I am going to try to take you back to a time before then, something you

learned about yourself. You said that you'd liked marching about,

firing guns and charging around in a tank. Tell us a little bit about

that. My school was evacuated during the war and I came out and joined

the Army as a volunteer in 1942 because, at that time, there was

conscription but if you waited to be conscripted, you went where they

sent you and I did not want to be in Wolverhampton.

So I volunteered for tanks and I got accepted and I went through all the

usual business, including Sandhurst and I came out at the beginning of

1944. I joined my Regiment in Holland, which was the premier

cavalry Regiment and still is as the Royal Scots Guards and I stayed with

them until we linked up with the Russians in 1945 on the Baltic

coast. We were having a race with the Russians. They were coming in

from the east westwards and we were coming from the West eastwards and

we were going to meet somewhere. We got told by the 21st Army group that

we had to get to Lubeck before them. They would control the whole Baltic,

who ever got there first. In May 1945, you met your father on the

battlefield. It was earlier than that. It was the day before the

Rhine crossing where we had a lot of pretty bloody fighting and there was

going to be a lot more to come. If you are in a tank and you run out of

ammunition eventually, you have to go back to get some more and I was

going back to get some more and when I got towards the replenishment

depot, I was sitting just like I am now and I looked down and three men

were coming towards me and I thought, one of them looks just like

my father and when he got a bit closer, I saw it was my father. He

was half an hour from being shot by a shell. What was he doing there? He

had got himself accredited as a war correspondent with an army uniform,

and somehow, he had gotten on an army control board and found out

where the Regiment was and had gotten there to where I was and we

met up for roughly half an hour. I couldn't stand around chatting

because I had some pretty urgent business to attend to but we stood

around chatting and I was obviously, as a son who worshiped his father

because he was a great man, pretty worried about his well`being and I

wanted to get away as quickly as I could. Did it ever occur to you at

the time that that might be the last time you ever saw him? Not

consciously. No. I mean, you mean because he might've been killed? One

or the other. No, you are pretty much occupied in trying to kill

other before they try to kill you. I didn't have much time. What did

amaze and appall me was that he was there. Because I was astounded that

he had been able to get there and I was extremely worried about him

being able to get away. You left the Army and went into a career in

advertising. When you joined the Army, you joined it as a boy but you

left it as a man and I'm sure many men went through that experience.

It's a maturing process. A toughening`up process. I was a

schoolboy, 17 or 18 when I joined and I had a very privileged and

comfortable life. You joined the world of advertising, you were good

at it and created well`known slogans. Trill makes budgies bounce

with health. Made to make your mouth water. Yes. A tang of citrus,

strawberry, orange and lime. And an only budgie is

you like advertising? I adored it. It is like the broadcasting world in

that you are working with young, ambitious and extremely bright

people who set very high standards and you have to keep up with them

with very high standards. Tell us how you got into an motor racing

commentary? You have a reputation around the world as being the voice

of Formula One specifically. How did that start? As I have said, because

my father did what he did and made his living on racing bikes, I grew

up in that kind of environment and when I came out of the Army, I

started racing bikes. I was reasonable at club standard, but I

had delusions of grandeur that I would show the old man up and I very

rapidly discovered that I wasn't going to do that. You know what they

say, those that can, do, and those that can't, talk about it. My father

had retired to become a magazine editor and also did commentary for

the BBC on motorcycle racing. Looking back at my motivation, both

for racing bikes and for broadcasting, I think I must've been

trying to be what my father was because he was very good at both of

them and I think I wanted to be like him. Or even better? To cut a long

story short, I was doing some public address commentary, a combined bike

and hill climb, and the BBC were doing it. If you are doing public

address commentary, you don't really have to talk a great deal because

the people you're talking to can see what you're talking about. It is not

like radio. But I knew there was a man there from the BBC and I wanted

to get his attention and I submitted the public to a nonstop barrage of

how I thought it ought to be done as a result of which, I got an

audition. As a result of which, they asked me at the second point of the

British Grand Prix at Silverstone to be there. And I did it with Max

Robertson who was the number one commentator and the BBC's tennis

man. He loathed and detested motor racing and knew as much about it as

I knew about tennis but we got through it all and then they put me

on. From 1949 until I retired from the business in 1982, I combined the

commentary and the advertising. What did the BBC see in you as a

commentator? What did they see in me? What skills and talent did they

identify in you? I hope they saw in me a gigantically enthusiastic

person about the sport that I love. A knowledgeable person about the

sport that I love because I had been soaked in it all my life. Somebody

who wanted to communicate with people and somebody who enjoys being

with people. That is the key. You use the word people. It's the

general public, rather than what we call petrol heads. If you are doing

either radio or television commentary, you are talking to

people who would give their eye teeth to be where you are because

you are in the very best place to see what ever it is you're talking

about. In my case, motorcycle or car racing. And I was absolutely flooded

with adrenaline and I wanted all the people that I was talking to to

enjoy my sport is much as I did. I metaphorically got them by the

throat and subjected them to nonstop talk. And I had a producer who would

say to me through my earphones occasionally, pause Murray, pause.

And I would for ten seconds and then the excitement of the occasion would

overcome me and I would be off again. You are known for a

distinctive style and that includes a word in the English language which

you probably won't find in the dictionary, the Murray`ism, a kind

of jumble of something. The car in front is absolutely unique, except

for the one behind it, which is identical. Or there is nothing wrong

with it but it is on fire. It made sense to me at the time. I could

explain them and rationalize them to you if you press me but as you well

know, when you are standing in front of a microphone and you have got to

communicate with literally millions of people, because the BBC's

commentary was taken for Formula 1 by virtually every English`speaking

country in the world. I was speaking to people from all over the world

and something happens when you do. You don't have time to contemplate.

Shall I say it this way or that way? You say it the way it comes out of

your heart and because you are in an exciting environment, the words

sometimes come out in the wrong order and sometimes the wrong words

come out. Sometimes words come out that don't make sense and people

say, why don't they get somebody who knows what he is talking about? But

you did of course. That is probably why the BBC never reprimanded you

for these verbal faux pas. I got a reputation for making

mistakes. If I had made mistakes about facts, getting the driver

wrong or the section of the road wrong, that would be different, but

as you have pointed out, they were malapropisms or getting the words in

the wrong order. Soon after you started, you were

joined by the 1976 world champion, James Hunt. That is probably one of

the most famous commentary relationships in the history of BBC

sport. Very possibly, Rob. It was fraught with all sorts of problems.

James and I were about as different as two people could possibly be. I

was old enough to be his father, pretty serious about what I did,

stomping around and getting the facts and talking to people. James

was very devil may care. There were aspects about his private life I

didn't like. There were probably things about me that he didn't like.

And there was a fair amount of friction in the commentary box when

we started off. I remember one occasion at the British Grand

Prix... I always stood up to do commentary. I was on the balls of my

feet, giving it plenty, and James was sitting, as he did, and he

thought, I have had enough, and he took the microphone out of my hands

and I was incandescent with rage. I had my fist out ready to hit him. We

were told off and it preserved a wonderful friendship and it was a

good friendship. There was a good chemistry too.

For whatever reason, probably because we were so different, the

chemistry worked well and the public seemed to like us.

You have had to commentate on a range of incidents in Formula One.

There have been lows and highs. The high was the Damon Hill championship

of 1996. The low was the death of Ayrton Senna.

The death of Ayrton Senna, live in vision, was the hardest and most

challenging commentary job I've ever had to do. I had seen three other

drivers crash in exactly the same corner in identical circumstances

and get away with it. One driver, Gerhard Bergher, had crashed and was

in his Ferrari and it was on fire and they got him out. So, my

reaction with Senna was that it was a big one. Because I'd seen three

other people get away with it, and I thought he was all right. It became

very clear from the body language and what was happening that he was

not all right. But I didn't know. Nobody was giving the information. I

had two screens in front of me. One was from the Italian organiser. It

was giving pictures that would not have been acceptable to the BBC.

Fortunately, for the first time ever at the Grand Prix, the BBC had their

own camera crew so they were able to cut away to other pictures. I was

having to walk the line between saying, don't worry, I have seen

people crash in identical circumstances and I am sure he will

be all right, and I didn't know that was the case, and on the other hand

not saying, that is terrible. I fear it is terminal. Because you don't

say that sort of thing. But somehow you find the words.

Let's recollect something much happier, the win of Damon Hill. That

brought you to tears of joy. I have known Damon Hill since he was

a child. His father was a double world champion, Graham Hill. He had

been a co` commentator with me on one or two occasions. I had seen

Damon Hill grow up and the misery that the family went through when

Graham was killed. Damon was living a very comfortable life at that time

as the son of a wealthy man and I won't bore you with the details, but

all of a sudden, the family were plunged into peniary. But Damon

started racing bikes and his mother persuaded him to go into cars. He

was a talented driver, but he had to put into it lot of slog. `` a lot of

hard work and slog. When he crossed the line in Suzuka 1996 to win the

World Championship, all of this welled up inside me and I said I had

to stop because I had a lump in my throat. People accused me of

thinking of emotional things to say and writing them on the wall of the

commentary box to produce at the right time but it is not like that.

You say what is inside you. I had to stop because I did have a lump in my

throat. When sportsmen and women retire,

they often find a void in their lives. Did you have that? Were you

concerned about that? I was 78. I felt I was getting

towards the end of the road for two reasons. One, the travel, which is

enormous in Formula One, was getting to me. Secondly, the Daily Mail had

done a hatchet job on me for a bad and inexcusable

mistake I made on some commentary. They said the old fool's got to go.

They had a lot of talk about whether I should go or stay. They had a

vote. Did that get to you? Yes, it did. We all have thin skins. It got

to me. I felt that while it was hurtful, there was an element of

truth in it. I thought that I ought to stop. We are coming up to the

50th anniversary of the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. You could

still do it? Given a bit of time for preparation. You don't just walk

into the commentary box and pick up the microphone. Well, you do, but

beforehand you have done an enormous amount of preparation. You have half

a season of preparation behind you by the time of the British Grand

Prix. I couldn't do that now. I could walk into the commentary box

and give a fair imitation of what I used to do. But would it be to my

satisfaction? I don't think so. You are a more distant observer of

the Formula One scene now. What do you think of the issues currently in

the sport? The noise is reduced. We have a more balanced season and

Sebastian Vettel is no longer dominant. Now it is Lewis Hamilton

and Nico Rosberg. I think we are having a fabulous

season. I say that every year, but I think we are having a fabulous

season and for all sorts of reasons. One is that we are having a

wonderful battle at the top between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

That will go on all season. The British Grand Prix is going to be

particularly exciting because Lewis Hamilton is behind Nico Rosberg, 29

points behind him. That is a lot. Lewis Hamilton feels he ought to be

world champion and Nico Rosberg wants to be world champion. No

matter what they say about each other and the eternal friendship

they have got, there is a lot of needle there. It is nice to see

Mercedes`Benz winning again. They have a good history behind them. I

think the formula for the cars is working well with the turbocharged

engines. I think the fuss about the comparative lack of noise is

rubbish. Engines make the noise that they make and turbocharged engines

make less noise because the energy that went down the exhaust pipe in

the form of noise last year is being retained to drive the turbo. I don't

want to get too technical, but the result is a lot quieter. They make a

different noise, which is no less evocative and exciting in my

opinion. There are a couple of political problems in the sport but

there are in every sport, as you well know. Formula One is in good

shape, if only they could get on top of the major problem, which is what

it costs for the teams. They have made their efforts, but it is too

expensive. They are trying but the big teams like Mercedes`Benz, Red

Bull and McLaren have enormous funds and don't want to spend any less.

The other teams don't have enormous funds and don't want to spend and it

is the case that the two will never meet. But they must do something

because there is a real danger of a few of the teams dropping out

altogether and that would be very sad. With that, we will have to

close. Thank you very much indeed.