I liked his eccentricity but his genuine and apparently deep rooted misogyny lost him his job, as opposed to his age as he unsuccessfully tried to have proven in court. Makes it very hard to sympathise with him. Didn’t come across as a particularly nice fella, but he made racing more entertaining in my view with his mannerisms. So he’ll very much be marmite in folk’s assessments. My late grandad though he was great, me, not so much. He looked very gaunt in his most recent photos so I at the very least hope that he didn’t suffer too long with whatever he had.
Went to Doncaster races once and he was strolling around the paddock. My wife went up to him to say hello and he was thoroughly obnoxious to her. There are ways to say no to people and he definitely went about it the wrong way. I understand famous people get fed up of people going up to them all the time, but it wasn't like she interrupted a family meal in a quiet restaurant, he was at a race meeting.
Last seen wearing a MAGA hat, that tells me all I need know about him and the kind of people that Trump attracts.
Don’t think we should speak ill of the dead save for the truly evil. Very easy to impose modern toss in hindsight on people of a different generation. Never had strong views on JM but hate to see someone hunted down and retrospectively hung out to dry for being what they have always been. As a pundit, I found him entertaining, amusing if sometimes a tw*t. As I do some of my friends. Neither he nor they are monsters. To see him at death’s door, half his weight and having to justify himself with his last breath says much of the modern hypocrisy I so despise. RIP.
Never got that one really, if you didn’t like them when they were alive and with no discernible change in their attitudes why should people change opinions of them?
Have to say that I spoke to him briefly in the betting ring at Doncaster once and he was fine - humorous with it. I suppose it depended on which side of the bed he'd got out of? I never thought that all the misogynistic stuff was anything but bluster and play-acting. He joined the TV world (as a sub-editor on Grandstand) at a time when wrestling occupied the last hour or so of 'World Of Sport' over on ITV. There were always the 'baddies' in the wrestling world whose job was to appear to cheat and to razz up the crowd - particularly the old ladies in the front row (before the good guy inevitably triumphed). I suspect they were all perfect gentlemen outside the ring! I've always imagined it was much the same with McCririck. His screen character was outlandish but it can't be denied that he helped put racing in the public consciousness. His picture was synonymous with horseracing. It's very ironic that after Channel 4 decided to update it's image he was replaced by the likes of Matt Chapman undertaking much the same role, but with considerably less ability. It's interesting to reflect how times change, because the colour of the betting ring is associated with the thrill of racing, but in reality it has become irrelevant, and the ring on-course these days is nothing but a reflection of the nationwide betting action taking place on the exchanges. The on-course bookies cannot and dare not step out of line with the prices available on the internet. So there is really no need for the likes of Chapman or the ridiculous Brian Gleason to be hyping it up with their roving reports. Trouble is, showing a few screenshots from Betfair, Betdaq and the like wouldn't look nearly as interesting on TV! So Big Mac's persona was probably already becoming redundant before he left Channel 4. His contract was a limited duration deal with the production company in reality, so his employment tribunal case always looked doomed. But let's not forget that in his time he was an award-winning investigative journalist who uncovered stories of skulduggery within greyhound racing and in regard to the Tote pools. He was far from a perfect human being, but I think it's fair to say that he brought some colour into people's lives on a Saturday afternoon.