There aren’t many people involved in any sport anywhere in the world as instantly recognisable as John McCririck was. The larger-than-life character would almost never be seen without his trademark deer hunter hat, as well as his glasses perched on his nose.
It was an eccentricity that was part of the reason he became such a beloved figure, known to even those away from racing. Yet it was unquestionably the horse racing that allowed him to make a name for himself, becoming extremely knowledgeable about a sport that he loved and dedicated his life to.
McCririck in the Media
Born in Surbiton in Surrey on the 17th of April 1940, John McCririck wanted to enter the diplomatic service when he was younger. When he failed to achieve that, he became a waiter working at the Dorchester Hotel, supplementing his income working for a bookmaker at a time when off-course betting was against the law in the United Kingdom. He then became a bookmaker in his own right, although he would later say that he failed on that front. Instead, he became a tic-tac man, working on racecourses up and down the country and sending messages about odds back and forth.
Media Career
It was with the newspaper The Sporting Life that his media career got its first break, doing well enough on that front to win twice with the British Press Awards thanks to his campaigning journalism. After being sacked in 1984, he joined the Daily Star, also being sacked there when accusations emerged that he was in debt to his bookmaker. Perhaps the fact that he successfully took the newspaper to an employment tribunal was part of the reason why he continued to be hired by various different media organisations, who liked his no-nonsense approach.
He had worked as a results sub-editor for the BBC show Grandstand, which in turn led to him becoming part of ITV Sport’s coverage of horse racing. That came in 1981, three years after he had appeared on a debate about fox hunting on Saturday Banana, an ITV children’s show. When horse racing coverage went from ITV to Channel 4 in 1984, McCririck moved with it and saw his role expanded. He began reporting from the betting ring, which was a subject he obviously knew plenty about thanks to his own history working in the industry.
Quirky Personality & Unpalatable Views
It was the personal style that he adopted, pairing his deer stalker hat with large sideburns and colourful suits, as well as a cigar, that began to gain him recognition. He was invited onto the Channel 4 discussion show, After Dark, on the eve of the 1988 Grand National in order to debate the merits of horse racing as a sport, appearing alongside the likes of Barney Curley and the Duchess of Argyle. In spite of the fact that one critic said that McCririck had ‘all the charm of an armpit’, he became a key part of the coverage of whichever channel in the UK had the right to cover horse racing.
That remained the case until the October of 2012, when Channel 4 announced that he would not be included in the racing team from the January of the following year. McCrick believed that this was ageism on the part of Channel 4, taking them to an employment tribunal but eventually losing. The tribunal said,
All the evidence is that Mr McCririck’s pantomime persona, as demonstrated on the celebrity television appearances, and his persona when appearing on Channel 4 Racing, together with his self-described bigoted and male chauvinist views, were clearly unpalatable to a wider audience.
That decision was reached, at least in part, thanks to the fact that the panel had been told that he was ‘offensive’ and ‘disgusting’ by witnesses from both the television station that he worked for and also the production company that produced the content. Not that that resulted in his media career coming to a grinding halt; in the December of 2018, it was confirmed that he would be joining the editorial team at The Racing Paper, writing a weekly column for the industry paper. He also continued to enjoy media appearances away from the racecourse on other TV shows.
Guest Appearances
He first did something that you might consider ‘out of the norm’ when he was a guest on the television show Bullseye in 1991, winning money for his chosen charity, which was the Sue Ryder Foundation. He was one of the celebrities that appeared in Celebrity Poker Club, making it to the grand finale before losing to Sir Clive Sinclair. On top of that, he was used in ITV’s coverage of the snooker, offering insights into betting. In the March of 1994, McCririck received a Gotcha Trophy from Noel Edmunds on BBC One’s Noel’s House Party.
Three years later and he was being fooled again, this time by the team behind Brass Eye when he was featured in an item about artificial insemination, as well as an item about Peter Sutcliffe, the Yorkshire Ripper, appearing in a musical whilst on day release. In the January of 2005, McCririck was ne of the contestants on Celebrity Big Brother, also competing on The Weakest Link, whilst a few months later, he was featured in Hell’s Kitchen when being refused service by Marco Pierre White for saying that the consommé was ‘greasy’.
Media appearances continued, appearing in the sitcom Still Game as himself, then entering the Big Brother House once again in Ultimate Big Brother. In 2011, he recounted his experiences as a student at Harrow School spending time in a haunted passageway for Celebrity Ghost Stories. Towards the end of June in 2015, McCririck was confirmed as being a contestant on the 16th series of Big Brother, this time in Big Brother’s Hotel From Hell, staying in the house before being joined by ex-housemates a few days later.
McCririck’s Personal Life
One of a kind.
We remember John McCririck, who sadly passed away 2 years ago today… pic.twitter.com/iSU81icpVq
— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) July 5, 2021
John McCririck was regularly accused of being a misogynist, which could perhaps best be demonstrated by the fact that he called his wife, Jennifer Barnes, whom he married in 1971, ‘the Booby’. In 2006, the pair appeared in the television show Wife Swap, being partnered with Edwina Currie and her husband.
A well-known supporter of Newcastle United, McCririck caught the flu in the early part of 2018 that turned into a chest infection, which caused him to lose weight dramatically. It might well have contributed to his death, which came the following year.
Lung Cancer
John McCririck dies at London’s Princess Grace Hospital on the fifth of July 2019, succumbing to lung cancer after a short illness at the age of 79. Chris Cook, the racing correspondent, wrote about him in The Guardian the day of his passing, saying,
He was outrageous, in both speech and appearance, because what he wanted most of all was a reaction, and so he enlivened many a broadcast or social occasion that might otherwise have fallen rather flat… While McCririck thrived on the attention his persona brought him, the buffoon act sold him short.
Cook referred to him as a ‘skilled journalist’ and pointed to the investigations that he carried out that ‘uncovered a couple of betting-related scandals in the 70s’. He also said that the producers of Channel 4 Racing would regularly turn to McCririck when ‘there was a serious interview to be done’ because they knew that he’d get the job done to the required standard.
A week after his passing, McCririck was featured in the obituary programme Last Word on BBC Radio 4, which looked back at his life and his time working in the horse racing industry.