During his 23-year run as full-time commentator, Walker became known for his animated enthusiasm, authoritative voice and comical blunders – dubbed "Murrayisms" by fans – during live races.

[3] He retired from full-time commentary after the 2001 United States Grand Prix, but returned to broadcasting part-time in 2005 and made occasional appearances on the BBC, Channel 4, Network 10 and Sky Sports F1.

[5] His father Graham Walker was a despatch rider and works motorcyclist for the Norton Motorcycle Company who participated in the Isle of Man TT.

[7] Upon returning to Britain, the Highgate School governors became concerned about the possible extent of bombing raids on London, and so Walker and his fellow pupils were evacuated to Westward Ho!

[4] Walker was later conscripted into the armed forces and applied to volunteer for tanks, but was required to wait until a training place became available.

On 1 October 1942 he travelled to Wool in Dorset, where he reported to the 30th Primary Training Wing at Bovington, the headquarters of the Royal Armoured Corps.

[4] Following the war, Walker briefly followed in his father's footsteps by taking up motorcycle racing, competing against, among others, a young John Surtees.

[9] After briefly attending Roehampton Technical Institute to study shipping management,[10] Walker worked in advertising for Dunlop and Aspro.

[12] Following this, he was employed as an accounts director by the Masius advertising agency, with clients including British Rail, Vauxhall and Mars, for whom the agency created the slogan "A Mars a day helps you work rest and play"; Walker repeatedly denied the attribution of the slogan to himself, saying that he was only an administrator on the project.

[6][12] His first regular broadcasting work was on radio coverage of the Isle of Man annual Tourist Trophy motorcycle race alongside his father.

Walker covered the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) for the BBC between 1969 and 1971 and also 1988 and 1997, and the Macau Grand Prix for Hong Kong TV on nine occasions.

[21] When in the commentary booth together, Walker would provide his animated descriptions of the action, with Hunt bringing in his expert knowledge, which included inside information from the pit lane, typically from his former team McLaren, and often opinionated nature, in his co-commentary role.

[4] Jonathan Martin, the head of BBC Sport, retained Walker's services for the corporation's coverage of the BTCC after the latter's rolling contract expired with them in May 1997.

[23] Walker opted not to renew his contract with the BBC in 1998 to focus on ITV's broadcasting on Formula One and he did not want to frequently commute to London to record commentary of the BTCC.

[28] He broke his hip at the 2000 Goodwood Festival of Speed and was replaced for the French Grand Prix by pit lane reporter James Allen.

[29] At the 2000 German Grand Prix, Walker erroneously said that Ferrari driver Rubens Barrichello had crashed when it actually was his teammate Michael Schumacher.

[9] This led to criticism about his frequent errors in an article published by the Daily Mail on the following day,[20] and it prompted Walker to speak to his bosses at ITV Sport about his future.

[30] He would commentate on 12 Grands Prix by skipping Brazil, Europe, France, Germany and Japan before continuing to work for ITV in a reduced role entering 2002.

[31] Bernie Ecclestone, the owner of Formula One's commercial rights, had suggested to Walker that he commentate on his world feed television coverage, which was declined.

[9] His final full-time Formula One television commentary was the 2001 United States Grand Prix and he was awarded an original brick from "The Brickyard" by track president Tony George.

[44] Walker navigated former Grand Prix competitor Chris Amon in a Toyota Camry Sportivo at the Targa New Zealand that took place five months later, where they finished eighth in their class and 114th outright.

[57] He and writer Philip Porter authored a book called Murray Walker Scrapbook on his memories and photographic memorabilia concerning his career with contributions from members of the Formula One community,[58][59] which was published on 2 May 2008.

[68] In June 2013, it was reported that Walker was to receive chemotherapy in the coming months, and had cancelled plans to attend the 2013 British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

[75] Walker withdrew from Channel 4's commentary for the 2018 British Grand Prix due to ill health but appeared in recorded features.

[76] Walker chose to stand while commentating during races rather than sitting down, allowing him to speak louder due to his lungs being inflated and his shoulders pushed back.

[79] He sometimes made humorous verbal errors known as "Murrayisms" that ranged from "simple misidentifications" to "lovely, labyrinthian, effortlessly complex acrobatic displays of linguistic virtuosity.

[3] He prepared himself for every piece of commentary work by meticulously researching facts and statistics on every driver and race track,[3][81] updating and rewriting them for the following event.

[81] George Tamayo described Walker as having an "encyclopedic" knowledge of Grand Prix racing, and one who held enough authority amongst the press that members of the Formula One community would rarely decline to be interviewed by him.