Taking his foot off the accelerator

He looks remarkably fresh for his 77 years, sitting patiently in a drawing room of The Merrion Hotel, waiting for yet another interviewer to move to the settee beside his chair. His schedule would constitute a significant endurance test for a younger man.

Every minute of his single day in Dublin is allocated to the pursuit of publicising his book (Murray Walker's Formula One Heroes), save a brief half-hour lunch. Two hours at a book signing, a slot allocated to the Gerry Ryan show and then the media interviews. The questions should become blurred through repetition but Murray Walker is gracious and a consummate professional to boot.

It is difficult to reconcile the manic, passionate and at times borderline hysterical commentary on Formula One racing with the quiet, thoughtful and articulate pensioner that sits ramrod straight in his chair. In 12 months' time, at the end of the 2001 Formula One season, he will officially retire as television's front-line commentator. Indeed, next season he will only commentate on 12 of the 17 races for the network, allowing ITV the opportunity to blood his successor.

His devotion to the sport is manifest in the commentary and his longevity; it is over 50 years since he first cradled a microphone for the BBC in 1949. Retirement looms and Walker concedes that his impending "new status" is something that he must address mentally and physically.

He had a "proper job" once, working in advertising from the time he left the army in 1947 until he retired in 1982. "It was then that what had been my absorbing

hobby became my consuming passion. My wife said recently not to retire because she felt that I wouldn't know what to do with myself.

"My dilemma is going to be - having been fortunate enough to be right at the centre of the thing (Formula One) which hugely appealed to me - I am now going to have to stand back. I travel the world in ideal circumstances, stay in nice hotels, travel at the front of the airplane and because of my job no door is closed to me.

"If I want to talk to Michael Schumacher, I talk to Michael Schumacher; if I want to talk to Mika Hakkinen, I talk to him. I adore the actual commentary bit, it suits my personality. That is going to stop and I don't think I am going to be able, temperamentally, to be an ordinary fan sitting in the grandstand.

"Those fans don't know a tenth of what is going on. I would feel frustrated, irritated . . . maybe time will change that but I don't think so. I've got to find something to replace that. I try to keep fit, which takes up time, because it involves me going to a health club twice a week, doing an hour and a half's workout and swimming. I'll probably do a bit more of that.

"What I do want to do is travel but a different kind of travel, not involved with work. I would like to see the motor museums of the world. That takes you to some fantastic places and wonderful museums.

"I also want to write the autobiography. I feel that I have a lot to say because I had a very happy and interesting childhood. I was in a tank regiment during the war, fought against the Germans and did a link-up with the Russians. Then I had my advertising career, which went well, and the broadcasting. I would have quite a lot to talk about."

Softening the blow of impending retirement is an offer from the Head of Sport in ITV, Brian Barwick, to remain part of the team and possibly "produce a Murray Walker feature at each race." One of Walker's pecadillos is that he stands, rather than sits, in the commentary box for the entire race. "I get excited and move about the box a lot and it's difficult to get excited sitting down.

That's the psychological reason but there's also a practical one. I was talking to a bloke at a party and he said,

`I'm a chest surgeon. You might not appreciate this but you are making your job easier. If you sit down your shoulders are forward and your lungs are deflated but if you stand, your shoulders are back and your lungs are inflated, thereby projecting your voice better.'

"Funny, James Hunt used to sit like a sack of spuds while Martin (Brundle) stands beside me to facilitate the hand signals we give each other so that we don't talk over each other. Apparently I sway from side to side and in order to stay beside me Martin has to do the same. It must make a peculiar sight for those outside the box."

Walker always deigned to be different and therefore unique.

Murray Walker's book `Formula One Heroes,' is published by Virgin and priced at £20.