MURRAY WALKER: Cancer doesn't frighten me, Lewis should leave Roscoe at home and Hunt's appetite for sex was un-be-liev-able!



One of the most famous voices in the history of British television can be heard through his front door as clear as a peal of bells.

'I'm coming,' calls Murray Walker. But behind those mellifluous tones, which burbled into a pants-on-fire bellow during his heyday at the microphone, he presents himself on two crutches. 'Sorry to have kept you.'

At the age of 89, Walker broke his pelvis last month and then tests revealed that he is suffering from lymphoma, a blood cancer that requires six months of intensive chemotherapy.

Life in the fast lane: Legendary Formula One broadcaster Murray Walker in good spirits at home

Walker recalls in that familiar staccato style he brought to Formula One commentary for the BBC: 'My wife Elizabeth and I were on a river cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest. We were in Bavaria when I came out of the gents and went down like a sack of potatoes. I don't really know what happened. I'm told I went down a step that wasn't there. I was just lying there.'

He had broken his pelvis in two places and spent 10 days in hospital before being flown back to Britain to recover in a hospital in Salisbury, near his New Forest home.

'You know our much-maligned NHS, they have been bloody good: every facility and damn nice nurses.'



After a battery of tests, he was told by a doctor that he had cancer. He laughs. 'I was surprised more than anything. They caught it early - undoubtedly a good thing - so the fall was a blessing in disguise.'

Fans' favourite: Walker has been inundated with good wishes since his illness was revealed

Elizabeth, his wife of 53 years, was with him when he learned the news.

'I am lucky that I have a steadfast, loyal, loving wife because if there is ever a time when you need a psychological prop this is it.

'Rather than someone rushing around the house in floods of tears, saying "Christ, he's got cancer', she is an immensely practical, sensible, down-to-earth woman.'

As if to prove his point, she suddenly appears and reminds Murray to take his pills. His position as a national treasure - helped by his much-loved habit of uttering the occasional malapropism and his 'unless I'm very much mistaken' catchphrase - is confirmed by the overwhelming response from fans to the news. He has been flooded by good wishes from across the world.

Rolling back the years: Walker, pictured with Johnny Herbert back in 2005, is undertaking chemotherapy

'It's been immensely humbling - a bit of a shaker.' One, from motor racing star Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes boss Ross Brawn simply said: 'Beat the bastard, Murray!'

Doing so involves six monthly bouts of chemotherapy. Much of this treatment is due to be given at a mobile unit set up by a charity called 'Hope for Tomorrow', established by the widow of another motorsport figure, David Mills, who died of cancer.

Ironically one of the £250,000 units was launched by Walker in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, where he lives. But Murray can't start the chemotherapy until the bones in his pelvis have knitted sufficiently.

'Perhaps I am being too casual,' he says philosophically. 'But I am three or four months off 90 years old. I have had a bloody marvellous life doing what I wanted to do - travelling the world with fast- moving, high-stepping, ambitious, capable people.

Out of the frame: Walker, the 'voice of Formula One' hung up the microphone in 2001

'I have enjoyed every second of it. And, by the way, I am not expecting to die from this. I am expecting to get better. Maybe I will be proved wrong but I don't think I will be.'

He says that cancer-sufferers often say they will 'fight every inch of the way' but adds: 'I don't know how you can do that exactly. You can just take the drugs and do as you are told. I suppose you could be flabby-minded about it, and that would not help. But I am relaxed.'

After graduating from Sandhurst, Walker was an officer in the Royal Scots Greys in the Second World War, commanding a Sherman tank, fighting in the Battle of the Reichswald and arriving at Belsen shortly after the concentration camp had been liberated.

'I am fatalistic about death,' he says. 'You could be run over by a truck tomorrow. I saw things during the war which I did not enjoy and do not enjoy talking about now. They will have formed my character but they have not necessarily formed my response to death.'

Fanatic: The 89-year-old was often an exponent of the commentator's curse

Also, of course, he has been heavily involved in a sport which, tragically, has had its own share of premature deaths.

'It is incredibly dangerous. I first went to the TT motorcycle races in the Isle of Man when I was two in my mother's arms. My dad, God bless him, was racing. There have been 200 deaths there since it began in 1907. The great riders of their day were all uncles to me. They would come down to breakfast in their leathers. But then some were killed. So my attitude is different from a lot of people's.'

As a BBC institution himself, Walker is dismayed by the toll recent sex scandals have taken on the Corporation's image. He says he knew Jimmy Savile. 'I'm not saying this with the advantage of hindsight, because it was evident to a blind man at the time that he was a pretty weird bloke.

'I wouldn't have accused him of being a paedophile - I certainly never heard those rumours - but he was a rum chap to put it mildly.

'If Jimmy Savile was doing obnoxious things with children, then he was doing it everywhere. There was also a different culture of opinion then and I would like to think that it would not happen now. I am sure the BBC have locks on the doors, or window panels, or whatever is needed, to make sure of that.'

Colourful character: The commentator had strong words for James Hunt, who he says was 'addicted to sex'

There is another former BBC colleague of whom Walker is deeply critical: James Hunt, the rakish 1976 Formula One world champion, who is reputed to have slept with 5,000 women. Walker and Hunt formed one of TV's most popular double-acts, Walker's high-octane excitement complementing his co-commentator's laconic yet acidic comments. But Walker admits their relationship was rocky. Even 20 years after Hunt's death at the age of 45, Walker condemns his excesses.

'James could be an extremely unpleasant person, and frequently was. He was an arrogant, boorish, rude, inconsiderate drunk.

'But he also had a most endearing, amusing, light-hearted personality. I saw a lot of both sides.

'I had to be extremely tolerant and understanding towards what I regarded as unpleasant, dismissive behaviour. But the public loved him because he was outspoken. He was extremely accomplished at what he did in Formula One and people accepted what he said as right.' Walker says Hunt bore grudges.

Unfair: Walker doesn't believe Lewis Hamilton should take pet dog Roscoe into the Formula One paddock

'Over the years I learned to accept James. We were never mates.'The tragedy was that there was always a bloody nice, cheerful, friendly, endearing, fun chap living inside James. It was the hangers-on and the idolatry he received that brought out the unpleasantness.

'As for his addiction to sex, it was almost a disease. James's appetite for sex was absolutely unbelievable. Un-be-liev-able.'

How heart-warming to hear that classic Murray Walker word again - though not in the context you might expect. For the first time since 1949, Walker was not at the British Grand Prix.

He was confined to his study where he watched the race on TV, using headphones to help him hear more distinctly after a lifetime's exposure to the deafening noise of car engines and army tanks.

He watched the BBC's coverage rather than Sky's for emotional reasons, though he believes both do a superb job. As for today's drivers, he wants Jenson Button (a 'lovely chap') to win, rather than his compatriot Hamilton.

Golden days: Walker with his golden retriever Judy in 1944, the year he left Sandhurst

Indeed, Murray goes on to complain about why Hamilton takes his bulldog puppy, Roscoe, to races. 'I have the utmost respect and admiration for Lewis, but the F1 paddock is no place for a dog,' he says.

'Think of the safety reasons. Think, too, of how a dog's hearing system is infinitely more sensitive than a human's - and my hearing has been destroyed by F1 cars.

'I am utterly amazed he's allowed to take the dog in. Whoever said that was OK should be drummed out of the Brownies. I can't imagine what the hell they are thinking about. It's utter madness.'

Walker's exasperation expressed, we turn back to his illness. He talks of how he will return to his regular gym sessions - treadmill, cross-trainer, bike, swimming, weights - to tone himself up when the chemotherapy is over. Although he stopped commentating in 2001, he's remained busy.

'Some people have retired and literally been bored to death. I have never allowed myself to get into that mindset. And I very much expect to beat this cancer, you know.'

Unless he is very much mistaken, that is news his legion of fans can celebrate.