John McCririck at Royal Ascot in June 2018
Racing journalist and broadcaster John McCririck died with his wife by his side in hospital today at 79, nine months after revealing he wanted to be cremated and his ashes buried on a raceourse.
The presenter, known as ‘Big Mac’ to many in the racing world, was a familiar face on Channel 4’s coverage of the sport for many years, with his career on television spanning four decades.
McCririck, who married his wife Jenny in 1971 and famously referred to her as ‘Booby’, was an unmissable character with his deerstalker hat, sideburns and cigar, and thrived at the heart of what he called the ‘betting jungle’.
McCririck was a divisive character whose misogynistic comments on TV caused fury among viewers in his later years, despite his insistence this was just part of a role he played as ‘pantomime villain’, especially on Celebrity Big Brother.
His comments about women included telling how he called his wife ‘Booby’ ‘after a South American bird that is stupid, incredibly easy to catch and squawks a lot’, and said the most important thing about women is ‘the size of their breasts’.
McCririck was well known for his outlandish dress sense and his ebullient personality in the betting ring during his roles on TV, first for ITV and latterly for Channel 4.
But despite being a much-loved TV regular, he became a controversial figure in his later years, which saw him insult Chris Tarrant’s estranged wife Ingrid, protest on Celebrity Big Brother about being denied Diet Coke and lose an age discrimination case following his acrimonious departure from Channel 4 in 2012.
McCririck had suffered declining health in his final years, but never revealed exactly what he was suffering from – although did reveal to MailOnline last October that he had had a bout of flu, and wanted his ashes spread on a racecourse when he died.
He said at the time: ‘I don’t want a funeral, I think it’s selfish. I want a cremation and to be buried at Alexandra Park Racecourse – Booby knows what to do!’
McCririck and his wife Jenny attend the Qatar Goodwood Festival in July 2016 in Chichester
McCririck is pictured at home in North London with his cat Gurtrude and dog Max in February
In 1981, he joined ITV Sport’s horse racing coverage, which then moved to Channel 4, where he spent more than 25 years in the betting ring.
Prior to that he worked for the Sporting Life newspaper and in recent years he had appeared on At The Races.
‘You smoke too much and you eat too much’: Hard-hitting quotes from ‘pantomime villain’ McCririck
On Celebrity Wife Swap with Edwina Currie (2006):
‘That was a good earner – I was paid a five-figure sum. It was a horrendous week though. I know it is sexist to say it, but a bossy woman like Edwina is hard to put up with.’
On Chris Tarrant’s former wife Ingrid (2007):
‘Look at Ingrid here, she wrote that he had erectile dysfunction and was rubbish in bed. Is she any better? You had a cheek to say that he smelt of vindaloo and fish and chips in bed, what’s wrong with that? You’re such a ghastly woman.’
To Coleen Nolan on Big Brother’s Weekend of Judgment (2017):
‘You smoke too much and you eat too much’.
Defending himself at his employment tribunal hearing (2013):
‘Because Captain Hook is horrible to Peter Pan and kids in Peter Pan, it doesn’t mean the actor playing him goes around abusing kids in the street. All this is a pantomime villain thing that Channel 4 encouraged.’
He appeared in various other mainstream programmes, including Celebrity Big Brother, before he acrimoniously left Channel 4 Racing in 2012.
He subsequently lost an age discrimination case made against the station and production company IMG Media Limited, with Channel 4 saying he had been dropped for being ‘offensive’ and ‘disgusting’.
McCririck is survived his wife of 48 years, Jenny, who is better known as ‘Booby’.
Just a fortnight ago, he thanked well-wishers on social media for their support, as people shared concerns about his health online.
His appearance on Big Brother’s Bit On The Side in October last year shocked viewers, with some pointing out he was looking ‘gaunt’ and ‘poorly’ compared with how he looked during his time as a contestant.
He then revealed he felt he had ‘no purpose in life’ after his regular television work came to an end and explained that the dramatic change in appearance was down to intentional weight loss and a severe bout of flu.
But he added his main struggle was being without work for six years after his acrimonious departure from Channel 4.
Last autumn the star said he wouldn’t ‘live to see another summer’ – but blamed his massive weight loss ‘on a bad bout of flu’.
He said: ‘Life is empty. It’s a question of slipping away. I’ve prepared the Booby [his wife, Jenny] for it. When I’m gone she knows exactly what to do and she’ll be fine’.
McCririck is pictured with his wife Jenny at home in North London in a portrait for the Daily Mail last October
In 2007, he was in hot water with Alan Titchmarsh on his chat show for insulting Chris Tarrant’s estranged wife, Ingrid. At one point, Titchmarsh ejected McCririck from the teatime show
He said he never recovered from losing his job as a racing pundit, adding: ‘I’m pining. The broken heart is for a lost job. Work comes first. I always worked. It’s the most important thing in life’.
McCririck revealed he didn’t want a funeral in last MailOnline interview
Rebecca Davison with John McCririck
MailOnline UK deputy showbusiness editor Rebecca Davison interviewed McCririck last October. Here, she shares her memories of meeting him and what he had to say:
We had called him to talk about his recent weight loss and he was incredibly accommodating and honest and happy to give lots of his time. Booby was in the background.
He brought up the issue of death and said he didn’t want a funeral. He said his wife, Booby, knew what to do and he had already given her instructions in the event of his death.
He said: ‘I don’t want a funeral, I think it’s selfish. I want a cremation and to be buried at Alexandra Park Racecourse – Booby knows what to do!’
He was keen to talk about how he had never really felt in good health since his Channel 4 sacking, he was saying that he wanted to work and it gave him a sense of purpose. He was saying that he felt like he had lost his identity and it made him feel depressed.
He spoke about his weight loss and said he didn’t know what was going on but he had a serious chest infection and flu but it was taking him a while to recover – he also said he had blood tests with the doctor.
He also said he loved the Mail, was incredibly sweet and said I could call anytime I needed to. He seemed like he was happy to have a phone call.
McCririck, who was born in Surrey and lived in north London, took legal action against the broadcaster in 2013 when they decided against including him on the broadcasting team.
The pundit accused bosses of ageism, although a tribunal found against him, ruling that it was because his ‘pantomime persona’ had become ‘unpalatable’ to a wide audience.
BBC horse racing correspondent Cornelius Lysaght described McCririck as ‘a one-off’.
He tweeted: ‘John McCririck has died; racing pundit, TV personality, award-winning investigative journalist, ‘failed’ (his word) bookmaker, showman, rent-a-gob, ‘marmite’ character, the list goes on & on… unquestionably a one-off.’
DailyMail.com US Editor-at-Large Piers Morgan described McCririck as ‘a great British character’.
He tweeted: ‘RIP John McCririck. He spoke his mind, loved to ruffle feathers, was as funny as he was outrageous, and had such a deep knowledge of & tremendous passion for horse-racing. A great British character.’
Top jockey Frankie Dettori paid tribute to a ‘larger than life character’ who was ‘very knowledgeable about racing’ following the news of John McCririck’s death at the age of 79.
Dettori is one of the genuine household names in racing, a tag that McCririck also carried, and the pair enjoyed many moments together over the years, as they struck up a good friendship.
‘I met him for the first time when I was very young. I was 16 and I was an apprentice. He was a big part of my racing life since I started,’ Dettori told PA.
‘He was very flamboyant and controversial, but I always got on really well with him. We did a few things together and he will be missed.
‘He did put on a bit of a show, but underneath it all he worked very hard and was very knowledgeable about racing.
‘He was a larger than life character. I’m very sad for Jenny, his wife.’
Multiple champion jumps rider Sir Anthony McCoy added his memories of ‘Big Mac’.
‘John was just about the most recognisable figure in horse racing when I came to England, people had only just heard of Frankie Dettori, so it was John or Lester Piggott,’ said McCoy.
He appeared in various mainstream TV programmes, including Celebrity Big Brother in 2005
McCririck talks to model Caprice in the Jacuzzi on Celebrity Big Brother on E4 in January 2005
‘That says a lot about him to say that he wasn’t a trainer, owner or jockey. He had attitude, he had a voice and said what he thought, he wasn’t frightened of upsetting somebody.
‘I don’t think I was ever on the end of one of his jockey bashings – thankfully.
‘There’s a good chance in this day and age, with everything needing to be so politically correct, he might not have been the great character on TV now that he was in the 80s and 90s.
‘You don’t get away now with saying what Big Mac or John Francome did, so for that reason it’s a lot harder now and more restrictive than then, but back in the day that team did a great job of representing horse racing.
‘They made it as easy and enjoyable to watch as possible, but the world is changing.
‘He was very good at promoting the sport, he was a very bright man, well educated and, while he had an opinion, what you have to say is he tried to be constructive. He was a punters’ man, that’s what he was there for.
‘I thought he was a bit shy off camera, quietly spoken. At first he was the sort of man you’d have to go up to to talk to rather than the other way and I used to think it was arrogance or ignorance, but soon realised he was a bit shy.
McCririck, pictured in 1984, enjoyed being in the ‘Betting Jungle’, the term he coined for his excitable workplace
‘I never watched Big Brother, but flicked it on a couple of times when he was in there and when he was walking around in those white pants he certainly left an impression!’
Roger Easterby, a close friend of McCririck for more than 40 years, told the Racing Post: ‘John was often referred to as being like Marmite, but I believe people genuinely liked him. He was kind, generous and knew his subject inside out.’
Jim McGrath, a long-time colleague of McCririck’s at Channel 4, told Sky Sports Racing: ‘John was a legend, one of few people who transcended racing.
‘If you went anywhere in racing in the 1980s and spoke to people with no interest in racing, they would always ask if you knew him. A lot outside racing knew him but nothing about racing, he was larger than life.
‘He was a very good journalist for the Sporting Life. In the later years of his career, he very much went down the media route, but that gets away from the fact that John had expert knowledge and was a very hard worker.
‘He was one of the first in the press room with his figures and stats, which he adored.
McCririck with poses with a group of women on Ladies Day at Royal Ascot in June 2013
Edwina Currie serves breakfast to McCririck on Channel 4’s Celebrity Wife Swap in 2006
Just a fortnight ago, he thanked well-wishers on social media for their support, as people shared concerns about his health online
‘We had very differing opinions, but he cared about the ordinary punter and he did stand up for them.’
Another of his Channel 4 colleagues, former champion jockey John Francome, also paid tribute.
‘I knew he’d been ill for a while. He was eccentric, incredibly generous – he was brilliant at his job. He was great company and I loved him.
‘I feel very sorry for Jenny as they were a great team.
McCririck is taken for a walk at The Blue Cross Dogs At Work Awards in London in 1998
McCririck poses with models at the World Poker Exchange London event in August 2005
McCririck, pictured in February 2006, was described by his family as an ‘award-winning journalist, broadcaster and for many years the face of British horse racing’
‘He reached outside the sport – the two names that were mentioned by people outside racing were Frankie Dettori and Big Mac.
How McCririck became a reality TV regular
Despite his prominence in the racing world, it was McCririck’s reality TV appearances that made him a household name in later years.
Stints in Celebrity Big Brother and Celebrity Wife Swap, starting in 2005, cemented his pantomime villain character.
His protests in Celebrity Big Brother about being refused Diet Coke remain some of the most memorable the series has aired.
In Wife Swap, he teamed up with also-outspoken politician Edwina Currie, creating strangely absorbing television as his co-star refused to buckle to McCririck’s obstinate ways.
The Telegraph described them as ‘like a real-life Alan Partridge and Lynn’.
In 2007, he was in hot water with Alan Titchmarsh on his chat show for insulting Chris Tarrant’s estranged wife, Ingrid. At one point, Titchmarsh ejected McCririck from the teatime programme, saying: ‘Go on, off you go’.
‘He had a persona for TV, he was nothing like what you saw on screen, he was a lovely man.
‘You’d never want to get into an argument with him because he wouldn’t argue with you unless he’s researched it to the nth degree!’
Coral’s David Stevens said: ‘It was with great sadness that we learned of the passing of John.
‘As a newcomer to the bookmaking PR game, I had the good fortune to come into contact with him, and while an intimidating figure at first, it soon became apparent that beyond the performer, the deerstalker and the cigar, was a knowledgeable, passionate, enquiring mind, who understood the importance of racing to betting, and vice versa.
‘He would also keep us bookies’ reps on the straight and narrow, which was no bad thing!
‘John also never forgot that racing and betting were first and foremost part of the entertainment business, important yes, but also something fun, to be enjoyed. He was a true one-off, never to be replaced. RIP Big Mac.’
A statement released by his family said: ‘Award-winning journalist, broadcaster and for many years the face of British horse racing, John McCririck, passed away at a London hospital on Friday, July 5 aged 79.
McCririck enjoys a cigar on London’s Piccadilly during the Liberty and Livelihood March for rural issues in September 2002
McCririck poses for a photograph at Lingfield Park racecourse in Surrey in March 2009
McCririck in his earlier days presenting horse racing at Cheltenham in March 1988
‘John’s interest in horse racing and betting began at Harrow where he was the school bookie. On leaving he worked for an illegal street bookmaker then legally on-course where he learned the art of tic-tac, clerking bets and making a book.
‘John cut his teeth in racing journalism on ‘Formindex’, a tipping sheet otherwise known as ‘The Golden Guide’. He went on to write for the Sporting Life where he won British Press Awards, ‘Specialist Writer of the Year’ and ‘Campaigning Journalist of the Year’.
‘John joined ITV in 1981 for Shergar’s Derby then became a household name as part of the Channel 4 Racing team when they took over coverage of the sport in 1984.
‘His flamboyant broadcasting style from the heart of betting ring proved extremely popular with racing fans and beyond.
‘John continued to work for Channel 4 Racing until 2013, as well as satellite channel At The Races.
‘In this time he transcended the world of racing, appearing on numerous mainstream TV news and light entertainment programmes including Question Time, The Weakest Link, Celebrity Wife Swap and Celebrity Big Brother in 2005 and 2010.
‘Despite suffering ill health in recent months, John continued to make several TV and radio appearances. He is survived by Jenny, his wife of 48 years. His funeral will be private.’
Ascot Racecourse has released a statement saying it is ‘deeply saddened’ by the death of McCririck.
‘Everyone at Ascot is deeply saddened to hear of the passing of John McCririck,’ it tweeted. ‘He was an unmistakable presence in racing, and one of the most impactful broadcasters of his generation.’
The British Horseracing Authority paid tribute to McCririck, tweeting: ‘We are saddened to hear of the passing of John McCririck.
‘Throughout a lengthy and colourful career, one thing was always clear – his enduring passion and love for the sport of horseracing.
‘He was a recognisable figure and resonated with the wider public. Our condolences go to his family.’
John McCririck had a serious and sensitive side behind his madcap persona but his face didn’t fit in the modern world… one of racing’s best-known figures will never be forgotten
By JONATHAN MCEVOY FOR MAILONLINE
John McCririck at Ascot in June 2018 with his wife Jenny, better known as ‘Booby’
There were two John McCriricks, predictably enough for somebody who clowned seriously in public. One centred on the extravagant performance he presented to television audiences: madcappery dressed up in a deerstalker hat.
But behind the ebullience lay a serious journalist, every newspaper open on his desk in race track press rooms or before breakfast at his mews house in Primrose Hill.
To the end, he was cutting out clippings of stories to augment his rich bank of racing knowledge. These were the ritualistic remnants of the award-winning reporter he had been, which, in turn, was the foundation block for the revolution he wrought in television coverage during 30 years at the top.
Beneath the brash hollering for which he won avid admirers, there was a more sensitive side, too, one that felt mortally slighted by his marginalisation by the TV people who had once clamoured for his services. Society’s mores had changed, but his act had not.
If anything, the McCririck persona developed into a caricature of itself, not least on his ill-begotten forays into reality television. His critics cried chauvinism. And, so, time caught up with the great jester a few years before he died on Friday aged 79.
But, in his bellowing prime, McCririck blew through the betting ring like a windstorm. He was the original antidote to racing’s staid broadcasting exemplars: the incomparable Sir Peter O’Sullevan’s mellifluous illuminations in the commentary box and the hair-slicked, immaculate diction of Julian Wilson in front of camera.
Like Wilson, McCririck went to Harrow. He left with three O-Levels, one more, he noted, than John Major and two more than Princess Diana. He sought a career in the diplomatic service but he was somehow deemed unsuitable.
McCririck smokes a cigar as he watches on at Ascot Racecourse in June 2014
‘Essentially,’ he once said, ‘my old school educated chaps like me to go out into the big world and administer vast tracts of the empire and sentence a few natives to death. The only problem was that by the time they’d finished with us there was no empire to administer, so here I am, dear boy, on the rails at Cheltenham.’
Where the BBC’s Wilson stood for officer-class asperity, McCricick was the people’s representative. Before him, betting was merely tolerated by television racing as a necessary evil but one that sullied the Sport of Kings. The odds were handed down sniffily by a voiceover man with the aid of bald captions, noses held all round. But McCririck, street-smart with rapier wit and a savage delight when the bookmakers took a beating, rewrote the rules.
McCririck (pictured in 1992) gave extravagant performances to television audiences
He was a natural in front of camera, his charisma zooming straight through the lens. That was first evident in the early Eighties when he was invited on to ITV to do a piece at Newmarket on the art of tic-tac semaphore used by bookmakers to convey the odds.
He was soon signed up and tic-tacing like a dervish. He came with insight garnered at the Sporting Life, where he won national honours as specialist and campaigning journalist of the year in consecutive years in the late Seventies, and as a sub-editor on Grandstand.
Now he was in his natural metier, the ‘Betting Jungle’, the term he coined for his excitable workplace. He cut that distinctive appearance: giant sideburns, an array of hats, outlandish suits, two gold wrist watches and three rings on either hand with giant horseshoes on each so big he must have needed help steering them on.
‘I picked up some tic-tac when I was a bookmaker but never mastered it,’ he said with self-deprecation. ‘That’s why I’m a failed bookmaker. The public haven’t spotted it yet but the real experts behind me just fall about laughing.’
Not that he ever showed the ‘experts’ too much respect. Once at Chester, he was angry to see the bookmakers in the centre of the course offering odds shorter than those in the enclosure. He thought this an exploitation of the once-a-year punter less versed in turf accountancy and took a camera with him as he challenged the offending bookies face to face.
And if heckled by beery racegoers, his alert mind came back with a nimble retort, or simply: ‘Grow up!’ Nobody in television operated so often in the middle of the masses.
‘Come racing,’ was his yelp of the evangelist. His colleagues on Channel 4 Racing were regularly asked what John McCririck was really like. Brough Scott had the perfect response: ‘You see the saner side of him.’
Away from the microphone, McCririck, the journalist, was full of ideas for the show. And, back at home, where he lived in a house of upper-middle-class gentility, he barked orders to his wife, aka ‘Booby’, from a throne-like armchair, where he held court while smoking a Cuban cigar with cats and his beloved Labradors at his feet.
He called his wife ‘Booby’ – she proudly had the moniker on her business card – after the bird that ‘flaps and squawks’. However, the notion of a downtrodden wife – of 47 years – was misplaced, and one she refuted in the interviews she gave in his defence when he was arraigned for perceived chauvinism. Jenny – her real name – was tough; often the ‘straight man’ in the double-act they presented for the cause of public notoriety.
I can attest to his kindness to untried new faces at the races. Others talk of his generosity to the young. But all these qualities counted for little when his weakness for a giant pay-check lured him on to Celebrity Big Brother and subsequent shows of even more dubious merit.
On Big Brother, he refused to talk for two days when denied the Diet Coke he craved. Silence? A first, his colleagues laughed, if only. And the sight of him in giant Y-fronts was surely one of the greatest abominations of early 21st Century television.
It was incongruous that this loner, the public extrovert who lived an essentially private life, a creature of habit with his annual holidays to Florida and Arizona, should welcome a camera held up to his every living moment. And doubly so, when, unlike some of the unknowns with whom he shared the house, he had no need to create celebrity, being already a figure of national recognition.
McCririck, one of horseracing’s best-known figuresm will never be forgotten. He is pictured promoting Totalbet.com in September 2000
This detour was part of his inexorable slip towards television rejection. He was dropped unceremoniously by Channel 4, the sacking letter in the post in 2012 no tribute to them or due respect to him.
He was devastated. He howled, ‘age discrimination’, and took his old employers to court for £3million. Channel 4 insisted he had been dropped for being ‘offensive’ and ‘disgusting’.
The tribunal agreed, finding against him: ‘All the evidence is that Mr McCririck’s pantomime persona, together with his bigoted and male chauvinist views, were unpalatable to a wider audience.’
Where he had once been TV’s go-to man for the well-crafted soundbite on any given racing matter, he was gradually ostracised by all media outlets. He turned up at races ready for action, yet was increasingly unused. He never learned to live without the red light.
Whenever possible, he continued to plug his hobbyhorses, the Tory free marketeer keen on banning the whip, but the manner of his argument had lost its old dexterity. ‘You can’t even beat your wife these days,’ he said, late on. Would a younger McCririck have uttered those words? Only possibly, but his earlier wit would have informed him that the intended joke would fall flat on the ears of a modern audience.
Such pleasures as he took in his dotage were three-fold. He delighted when Channel 4 lost their racing rights to ITV for 2017, was chuffed by Brexit and delirious about Donald Trump’s presidential win.
Lionised, derided, but never ignored, John McCririck died one of racing’s best-known figures, alongside Frankie Dettori, and behind only the Queen.
