Julian Wilson, the face of BBC TV’s racing coverage for more than 30 years, has died at the age of 73 following a long illness.
Wilson was a a presenter, correspondent and commentator for the corporation from 1966 until his retirement in 1997, during which time the corporation held the rights to major meetings such as the Grand National and Royal Ascot.
A regular figure on BBC television screens for many years, the Harrow-educated journalist and broadcaster passed away on Sunday evening (April 20) after fighting a long battle with cancer.
His second wife Alison said: “He had a long, long battle against cancer which he did not want anyone to know about.
“People haven’t known he was ill for very long. He had prostrate cancer 12 years ago and, unfortunately, it came back last year.”
Alongside his successful media career, Wilson also owned several horses with a small degree of success and was racing manager for the late Sir Clement Freud.
He also owned Lady Herries-trained Tykeyvor, winner of the 1996 Bessborough Handicap at Royal Ascot, and was racing manager to Italian restaurateur Walter Mariti whose Pontenuovo landed the 1990 Royal Hunt Cup at 50-1.
But it was his role as present of the BBC’s racing coverage for which he was best known, a position he occupied for 32 years until his retirement in December 1997.
He was succeeded in the post by Clare Balding, who would hold the role from 1998 to the end of BBC TV’s racing output in 2012, and she was also among those to pay tribute to Wilson, tweeting: “Very sad news. I owe Julian Wilson my first break in TV and will forever be grateful.”
His departure from the BBC came only one month after another stalwart in commentator Sir Peter O’Sullevan retired from his role, with the pair covering some of the most iconic moments in racing history alongside each other for more than three decades.
Former Classic-winning jockey Jimmy Lindley, who worked with Wilson for many years at the BBC, said: “He was the most thorough professional I’ve ever come across.”
“He was probably the most astute person that’s ever been involved in racing. We were great friends. I’m so sorry he’s no longer with us.
“He was a wonderful man and a credit to his profession and the biggest compliment I can pay him is that along with Sir Peter O’Sullevan, they put it all together.
“Racing was very professionally run in those days on TV, as it is now, those two set the standard. He loved life, wine and people and was a great man.”
BBC horse racing correspondent Cornelius Lysaght told the BBC: “Generations of horse racing followers grew up with Julian Wilson as the face of the sport on BBC television for over 30 years from 1966.
“A contemporary at Harrow school of pundit John McCririck, Wilson brought to the screens an unrivalled knowledge and deep passion for racing and for the formbook.
“His patrician tones and serious, no-frills style might not be to the taste of every programme controller today, but it carried with it great authority.
“Julian Wilson was an individual who was happy not to be everyone’s cup of tea, but to me he was unfailingly helpful and encouraging.”
In a tribute for the Daily Telegraph, his former BBC colleague Jim McGrath said: “Julian Wilson brought a sense of the serious racing professional.
“With hair brushed back and fastened with industrial gel that could withstand an Arctic gale, and forever suited in his trademark pinstripe, Wilson, though at times slightly uncomfortable in front of camera, was one half of a highly respected and popular partnership with O’Sullevan that was to provide the racing staple for punters decades before the arrival of specialist cable and satellite channels.”
Wilson followed his father Peter, a sportswriter on the Daily Mirror, into journalism and was frequently described as ‘old school BBC’ – immaculately dressed with a precise presentation style.
He was thought to dislike today’s more populist style of TV coverage of major racing events compared to his era.
When the corporation finally handed over all terrestrial racing coverage to Channel 4 in 2013, he told the Daily Express: “When it was first covered, 61 years ago, racing was very important to the BBC. When Grandstand started in 1958, horse racing was one of the foundations of it.
In comparing the BBC’s traditional style of coverage to ITV/Channel 4’s approaches to covering the sport during his time, he described them as like “chalk and cheese”.
“For us, racing was serious, we weren’t interested in the gimmicks, people dressed up in purple suits, schoolboy humour, interviewing the best dressed women and children.
“And everyone knew that all the big names on the BBC liked a bet and they knew they were going to get a better source of advice.
“We reflected the fact it is a serious sport – Channel 4 tried to trivialise it.”
Wilson’s 1998 autobiography ‘Some You Win’ caused a stir with the industry when he revealed a strained relationship with former colleague Sir Peter O’Sullevan, as well as Clare Balding, with whom he latterly co-presented the BBC’s coverage in his final year.
Jim McGrath added: “For all his expertise as correspondent and presenter, Julian always had ambitions on the commentator’s job.
“Confusion over a date for Sir Peter to step down led to tension between the two key BBC men, though it never showed.
“Instead of retiring at 65, as Julian had expected, O’Sullevan carried on for another 14 years. In the event, they both retired from the BBC with four weeks of one another.”
Born Julian David Bonhôte Wilson on June 21, 1940, he leaves behind his second wife, Alison, and a son from his first marriage to Carolyn Anne Michael.
‘A serious racing professional’ – Read Jim McGrath’s tribute here
.
.
