For British people of a particular micro-generation, James Hunt is associated as much with being a commentator with the BBC as being a driver - maybe even more so. His driving career in F1 (or as he genteel-y called it, Grand Prix racing) lasted six years, his commentary career for more than twice that.
It's a lovely second chapter in James's life. After being a championship-winning driver, he found another element of the sport he loved and managed to become an iconic figure at that, too. And most of the reason his commentary career is so well remembered is his legendary partnership with Murray Walker.
(There is scope for a few posts about James's commentary career, and I may come back to it in future to talk about money, or activism, or controversies, but today it's all about James and Murray).
I can't emphasise enough how big a figure Murray Walker is in British F1. He was the unmistakable voice of the sport for decades, commentating on every race from 1976-2001 (though he worked full-time in a regular person job until the early 80s). He was a huge character who lived a long life and was revered by fans, not in spite of his quirks and limitations but because of them. His screw ups on the mic were legendary to the point that he was nicknamed Muddly Talker (Mike Doodson, writing about their partnership in Motorsport magazine, blames James for that one, and he was a chronic nicknamer). Murray commentated alongside Martin Brundle later in his career, but it's the Murray Walker and James Hunt partnership that's considered the golden age of F1 commentary in Britain.
It's telling that no one was permanently recruited to James's vacant role after he died; Murray returned to commentating solo for years, with occasional guests, before working with Martin Brundle.
Because Murray and James had something special.
Which included wine, an almost-punch-up, refusing to share notes, some swearing, endless complaints, quite a few lies, a sneaky joint, and ultimately, mutual respect and genuine fondness.
James's first experience of commentary was at the Monaco Grand Prix in 1980. His leg was in plaster after a skiing accident, and he famously, according to Murray, arrived
"...in his frayed denim shorts, his shoeless feet, his right leg in a cast from ankle to crutch, and clasping a litre of rosé. I won’t go so far as to say he was drunk but he was, well, full.
He then proceeds to put his plaster cast in my lap and get stuck into the rosé. God knows why, but our producer actually sent out for a second litre bottle halfway through the race. It all made for a pretty difficult situation. But James had the knack of surviving incidents like that."
From that start, it was hard to believe they would become so iconic.
The BBC only gave them one mic, so they couldn't talk over each other. This meant a *lot* of arguments and fights over it. From time to time, both James and Murray would separately approach their boss, Jonathan Martin, to complain the other one was hogging the mic. Jonathan would promise to talk to the alleged hog, would do nothing, and then the complainant would come and thank him and say the problem had got much better. There's a lesson in there somewhere.
Murray Walker, Mike Doodson and James Hunt
In a radio interview, Murray told this story:
"I was standing up and James was sitting down and I was giving it plenty.
James saw the old boy had been talking long enough and he gave the microphone wire a terrific tug. The microphone flew out of my hands and into his.
I had my fists back to give him a fourpenny one because I was absolutely incandescent with rage."
Luckily, the producer caught Murray's attention and gestured at him not to hit James, and he didn't.
Murray also points out in a lot of interviews about James that they belonged to different generations. Murray was born in 1923 and James in 1947; they literally could have been father and son.
Murray was known for being high-energy, wild and excitable. James, in his commentary career, was much more chill. Murray spent the entire weekend roaming the paddock for information; James sat in the Marlboro motorhome and waited for gossip to come to him. Murray felt that as a non-racing driver, he had no right to criticise drivers in his commentating. James criticised everyone - so much so that he had to apologise to drivers on air from time to time. I love one clip of James apologising to Senna with Murray beside him like a dad bringing his son to say sorry for breaking a window. James does not consider this interaction to require a shirt.
(I can't find a non-Meta link for it, but if you google "James hunt Senna apology" and select video results, it should be the second one)
Some of James and Murray's best moments together:
James swearing
"Flames!!"
James teaching Murray to drive an F1 car
There is a long video on YouTube (well, 12 minutes plus) of Murray and James discussing the 1992 season before it began. Sadly this would be the last season James would witness in its entirety. I think it's worth a look because in my opinion, it shows James at his best. At this point in his life he was in a committed and happy relationship with Helen Dyson, he was an involved father with his sons, he wasn't misusing alcohol (he does have a glass of wine in this video, but he wasn't drinking to excess in his final years) and he had fully settled into a respected role as an expert and commentator. It also shows the deep mutual respect and liking that had grown between James and Murray.
As James died while their partnership was ongoing, he isn't on record reflecting or speaking about it much, so we don't really know firsthand how he felt about Murray. It is fair to guess that his feelings were extremely warm, since Murray was asked to speak at James's memorial service. It feels like the close people planning the service would have only invited people to speak who were important to James.
Murray participated in a documentary about James, called The Real James Hunt, which has a lot of flaws. The documentary used Murray's quote about his impression of James during his racing days (not good) and didn't use the rest of the interview. Murray complained about this publicly, saying it misrepresented his opinion of James by only featuring his impression from before he and James worked together. He also felt the documentary downplayed James's commentary career. I wrote about that documentary here, before I knew anything about Murray's feelings on it, and my impressions at the time are pretty much the same as Murray's. Murray was on good terms with James's sons until his own death, so luckily it's fair to assume no one close to James was upset by what Murray said on camera.
Murray's final tribute to James is lovely, but be warned, it is sad to watch. I think it shows how Murray had genuinely come to like James as well as respect him, and that there was real grief when he died. The grief of a friend.
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