Probe after body found
A PROBE is under way after a body was discovered yesterday.
Police in Bolton, Greater Manchester, responded to reports of concern for the welfare of a man at 8.10am.
Emergency services were scrambled, including a police helicopter, as officers searched the area.
A man was later pronounced dead at the scene in the grounds of Heaton Cemetery and the site was cordoned off as teams investigated.
MOTOR racing legend Murray Walker, the distinctive voice of Formula One, has died aged 97.
For 50 years Murray’s enthusiastic and knowledgeable commentaries brought F1 to life for millions of fans.
The late Clive James once said of him: “Even in moments of tranquillity, Murray Walker sounds like a man whose trousers are on fire.”
Last night the motor racing world paid moving tributes to “the greatest commentator of all time”.
Top Gear’s James
May tweeted: “RIP
Murray Walker, one of the great voices of my youth. I hope he would want someone to say that he’s interrupted himself, again.”
The British Racing
Drivers’ Club, which announced his death, and called him a motor sport legend, said: “We thank Murray for all he has done for our community. RIP our friend.”
Murray commentated on his first grand prix for the BBC at Silverstone in 1949. He was a full-time F1 commentator from 1978 to 2001.
Ex-racing driver Martin Brundle, who worked with him, said: “Wonderful man in every respect. National treasure.”
Murray, who stood while commentating so he could speak louder, could make humorous verbal errors, or “Murrayisms”, which only endeared him more to his legions of fans.
One of his catchphrases was: “Unless I am very mistaken… and yes, I am very much mistaken”. But he prepared meticulously for every commentary by researching statistics on every driver.
In 1996, the year he was made an OBE, he had to stop commentating when Damon Hill finally became world F1 champ. He said: “And Damon Hill exits the chicane and wins the Japanese grand prix... and I’ve got to stop, because I’ve got a lump in my throat.”
Damon Hill tweeted: “God’s Speed Murray and thanks for so much. The Legend will never die.”
Sports presenter Gabby Logan tweeted: “There is not a human on this earth who met Murray Walker who would have anything other than joyous memories and smiles thinking of their time. That voice, that turn of phrase and that enthusiasm for his passions and his life, he was a very special man.”
Born in Birmingham, the son of despatch rider Graham Walker, he graduated from Sandhurst in 1942 and was an officer in the Royal Scots Greys in the Second World War, aged 19.
He commanded a Sherman tank in the Battle of the Reichswald in 1945.
After the war, he briefly followed in his dad’s footsteps and took up motorcycle racing and later worked in advertising. His first regular broadcasting work was covering the Isle of Man TT races alongside his father.
They worked as a pair for the BBC from 1949 to 1962.
He is survived by Elizabeth, who he wed in 1959. They had no children.