Murray Walker
Formula One (F1) motorsport commentator.
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We all make mistakes, but when I made mistakes there was no filter between me and the consumer.
I'm a frustrated driver. I would love to be out on the track instead of them. I look at them with envy.
I know this is going to sound peculiar, but you're not really conscious of what you're saying. You see a picture in front of you and it's your job to interpret that picture for the viewers at home and put what they are seeing into context with everybody else in the race. You use whatever words come into your head at the time. It's not something that you can think about.
In my defence...it depends how you define the word 'mistake'. What people call Murrayisms are malapropisms or getting the words in the wrong order. You're standing there in front of a TV set and getting live pictures. The words are pouring out of you. You have to say what comes into your head, and sometimes the wrong words come, in the wrong order or I'd make prophecies which immediately turned out to be wrong.
I don't make mistakes. I make prophecies that immediately turn out to be wrong.
There can never be another Murray Walker. We will try to enjoy Formula One and motor racing without him, but it will never be the same. Unless I am mistaken, we've lost an institution.
Motor racing can never be totally safe and it never should be in my opinion. But thank God it's a lot safer now.
My target audience in my mind was not the dedicated, dyed-in-the-wool knowledgeable anorak, who would watch anything and listen to anything on the subject. It was the un-committed, uninvolved and probably not very enthusiastic ordinary folks who were watching at home. I wanted to grip them by the throats and say 'Hey look this is fantastic! I love it and you ought to love it too. And here's why!'
I wouldn't want to stop making those gaffes, even if I could. People realise I am flesh and blood. I am not sensitive about it. It's just my enthusiasm. I want to say so much more than I have time for.
I miss it enormously. I miss the buzz. I miss the adrenalin and I miss shouting into the microphone. I miss the atmosphere, I miss the camaraderie. But I don't miss it as much as I might have done, because I haven't had a total withdrawal.
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