John McCririck

John McCririck
Born	(1940-04-17) April 17, 1940 Surbiton, Surrey, England
Occupation(s)	Horse racing pundit, Tic-tac man

John McCririck (born 17 April 1940, Surbiton, Surrey) is an English television horse racing pundit. He is notable not only for his racing opinions, but his gentry style of dress and mannerisms. With his trademark deerstalker hat, tweed jacket and large sideburns, which he calls his wackers, he looks the part of a stereotypical English upper-class eccentric, and he happily acts this role. He also uses the traditional tic-tac signals when commenting on odds before a horse race. His public comments have often been surrounded in controversy, and have occasionally been interpreted to be derogatory and offensive, particularly towards women.

Career

McCririck was educated at Victoria College, Jersey and Harrow School. He was originally a racing journalist with The Sporting Life and also wrote for Grandstand ; he began his career as a television pundit on ITV's horse racing coverage in 1981. During 1984 and 1985, horse racing moved to Channel 4 as referred to as Channel 4 Racing. In 2002, Channel 4 launched its own digital television racing channel, attheraces, which was sold to BSkyB in 2003. He is famous for his outspoken opinions; in particular, he has risen to the defence of punters when he thinks they are being given bad value, and is highly critical of jockeys when he doesn't think they have ridden well. He is best known to American racing audiences for his annual appearance on the Breeders' Cup telecast, in which he invariably touts British horses over their American rivals.

Beyond racing

McCririck is a celebrity for more than just his racing opinions. In January 2005 he appeared as a contestant in the third series of Celebrity Big Brother. He upset other contestants with trenchant and unpopular views on women, refusing to join in tasks set for the contestants, walking around in his 'white' underwear and refusing to talk for three days in protest at not receiving the Diet Coke he had requested in the contestants' shopping. On Day 12 of the competition he became the second contestant to be evicted from the house after receiving fewer votes than fellow housemate Bez. Since then John has been a regular contributor to spin off shows Big Brother's Little Brother and Big Brother's Big Mouth, often being asked to report and speculate on various housemate's chances and odds with the bookies. He also appeared on Big Brother Celebrity Hijack where he was a celebrity hijacker. He set a task where the housemates had to learn tic-tac.

Wife Swap

He refers to his wife Jenny as 'The Booby', and has been accused of frequent misogyny. He is also an outspoken admirer of George W. Bush and supports Newcastle United F.C.. [1]

In autumn 2006, McCririck and Jenny took part in Wife Swap alongside Edwina Currie and her husband (also called John). Currie strongly objected to McCririck's habits, which included eating his meals in bed and refusing ever to cook or drive the car. McCririck meanwhile, objected strongly to Currie's removing the fuse from his television set, and at one point ordered her to "get out of my house!" but she did not comply. In a follow up to his appearance in Wife Swap, he appeared on ITV's Loose Women, where he was booed off the stage as a result of his strong chauvinistic views. McCririck also appeared on The Sharon Osbourne Show where Osbourne ended up throwing water over him, because of his behaviour and views on women.

Other TV appearances

He has also appeared in the Celebrity Poker Club television series, reaching the Grand Final of series one, won by Sir Clive Sinclair. In 2005 he appeared on the chat show Heads Up with Richard Herring to discuss his life, career and his love of poker. He also starred in a short film drama, Tartan Smalls: Winning Streak (screened on CBBC and BBC Television), where he played himself. The satirical puppet show Spitting Image portrayed him as gibbering fool who was eventually put down in the manner of an injured racehorse.

He guest starred in an episode ('Drama') of the Scottish sitcom Still Game as himself, appearing on television at a race, egging Winston (Paul Riley) on to go and gamble at "the bookies'".

He presented Big Brother's Big Mouth from the 3rd July 2007 to the 6th July 2007 with The Booby and his Labrador dog, Copper.

McCririck appeared on an episode of Hell's Kitchen where he was kicked out of the restaurant at the hands of Marco Pierre White who described him as a "pig".

McCririck appeared on The Alan Titchmarsh Show on the 20th September 2007 to discuss the appeal of women over fifty, and was asked to leave after insulting Ingrid Dupre-Walsh in relation to her comments in the press about her sex life with ex-husband Chris Tarrant.[2]

Speech at Robin Cook's funeral

On 12 August 2005, whilst giving a speech at Robin Cook's funeral, he denounced Tony Blair for not attending as he was on holiday snorkelling.

External links

• John McCririck at IMDb
• Interview in The Guardian, July 4 2001
• Channel 4 Horse Racing