Awww John McCririck has died

[GoldenGumballs]

A controversial figure but am sure myself & fellow Big Brother fans will be sad to hear this news. He looked so ill on his last TV appearance.
I will always remember his Diet Coke rant wearing nothing but his white undercrackers in the diary room.

A very colourful and eccentric entertainer and character.

Married to The Booby since 1971, so I hope she will be ok.

RIP

I know a lot of people in the racing industry and most of them are very sad about this. Many of them say that what you saw on TV was a deliberate invention of someone who knew how to play the media game and that away from the TV and the lights, he wasn't anywhere near as loud or at all sexist but very funny and a total gent. For all the stuff about calling Jenny, his wife, The Booby, he absolutely idolised her apparently and she him. He was an award-winning journalist in his time but probably should have had the sense to have gone some years before he was pushed as tastes and style has changed and not done things like Big Brother. He definitely did a lot in the 80s to make racing more popular on TV and less of a "class" thing.

@ShatnersWig that’s a lovely post and very true.

Another colourful character gone.
I know nothing about the BB side of things, but I remember him through the racing and I'm sad he's died.
RIP John McCririck.

I remember him from racing and he was always on the side of the punter. He also did Celebrity Wife Swap with Edwina Curry. His wife, Jenny, seemed to get on well with Edwina’s husband but, as you can imagine it wasn’t plain sailing in the McCririck household.

He also worked for the BBC’s Grandstand programme for years behind the scenes and was an excellent racing journalist. A lot of what he said was an act, and I certainly admire Jenny. She would often stay in the car park at the races as she drove him there and back.

Nice obit in the Racing Post. I'd forgotten he wanted to ban the use of the whip.

www.racingpost.com/news/latest/he-knew-his-audience-knew-what-they-wanted-and-knew-how-to-give-it-to-them/388289?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=RP-FridayNews&utm_content=Obituary&utm_term=NULL

A man who really knew his stuff and cared about jockeys and horses.

Aww RIP, hope his wife is bearing up ok.

Thankyou for the link @ShatnersWig I only really new him from celeb bb and being the eccentric loud person who always wore a hat at the races! I enjoyed reading it.

Fascinating to look at Twitter and proof of his Marmite quality. Plenty of people referring to him in very unflattering terms as a misogynist or sexist. Yet everyone who met him or worked with him seems to be emphasising how kind he was - including many female journalists (and they'd know best, I fancy). And also very loyal. One of his closest friends was the (brilliant and much missed Labour MP) Robin Cook and indeed there were two eulogies at his funeral - one by Gordon Brown and one by Big Mac. Yet Big Mac was as Tory as you got.

Didn't have to agree with him. Didn't have to like him. But at least he wasn't BLAND.

What a lovely warm and insightful tribute to Big Mac - thanks for the link @ShatnersWig

I only knew of him through his BB stint,etc. and he really did himself no favours...that nose picking and eating it habit,etc. oh! and that his wife travelled in the sardine section while he was in the paid for business class and the over-sharing of his sexual preferences and so on...
for his wife tho.

Great posts @ShatnersWig

The racing industry is such that if you aren’t a decent person you won’t get anywhere, certainly at that level.

Must say I'm quite surprised at this thread.

While I would never have wished him (or anybody really) harm I couldn't stand the man!

He always appeared extremely sexist to me, Very old fashioned/intolerant views, dirty, loud.
I actually always got a very bad, uneasy feeling about him whenever I saw a picture or watched an interview actually.

I despise horse racing and don't personally believe anyone involved is a genuine animal lover tbh, well, maybe the grooms possibly but no one higher up.

And I believe also a supporter of fox hunting, as are many, if not most horsey people.
I cannot no matter how nice they may appear like someone who harms others for sport.

I hate horse racing and chauvinism, so was never a fan.

Perhaps Fucksandflowers you’d like to read this quote from his wife “We knew it was going to happen but it's still just awful," she said. "For me it's like the light has been switched off. It's the end of an era.

"John's life was racing and once he couldn't go racing it became so much harder for him. He lived and breathed racing. When he worked on Channel 4 Racing he felt like he was part of a family. We were all one family.

"Some people said he was awful but that was absolute rubbish. John put on a pantomime act. We all know that. He made a living out of it and people liked it, but deep down he was a very private person and he cared about people. He was such a kind man but he never shouted about all that he did, including for Greatwood."

As for your assertion that “many if not most” horsey people support fox hunting - that’s utterly ridiculous. There are tens of thousands of people who are involved with horses who have nothing to do with it.

That may well be true, I never knew the man.

I'm basing my opinion on what I heard and saw and felt when watching him and I didn't like it.

I am an ex horsey person actually. Most of the riders and instructors I knew were pro hunting.
Not all, I certainly never was, but most.

I remember when he spoke up against racism during the Jade Goody/Shilpa Shetty CBB incident, and that made me see him in a warmer light. RIP John (he probably wouldn't want me to say that though)