Dan Walker

This article is about English sports journalist Dan Walker. For US Governor Daniel Walker, see Daniel Walker.

Dan Meirion Walker is a British sports journalist. He is the current presenter of Football Focus, the BBC's Saturday lunchtime football show. He has also been seen presenting sport on the BBC News Channel and BBC Network News, as well as regularly reporting for Score, Football Focus and Match of the Day.

He was born on the 19th March, 1977 in Crawley, West Sussex and earned an honours degree in History at the University of Sheffield, before continuing to attain an MA in Journalism at the same institution.

Radio career

Walker's first foray into broadcasting was co-presenting two shows on the University of Sheffield's Sure FM student radio station - the midweek sports-themed evening show and 'Dan & Edd In The Afternoon', for which he and co-presenter Ed Hoyland were nominated for a BBC Radio One Student Radio award.

Gained as the prize for winning a competition for young sports commentators, Dan's professional broadcasting career started with work experience at Sheffield's Hallam FM, working with presenters such as Emma Scott, Anthony Gay, Daryl Denham and Scottie McClue. In 1999 Walker moved to a full-time career with a 4 year stint as a sports presenter and commentator for Manchester's Key 103 radio. In his time at Key 103 he presented the regular midweek sports show (often broadcasting from UEFA Champions League matches at Manchester United's Old Trafford ground, and also appeared as the resident sports correspondent for Mike Toolan's breakfast show.

In addition, he had two short-lived comedic roles whilst at the station. The first was in 2001 on Justin Moorhouse's Piccadilly Magic 1152 show, doing 'special investigations' into numerous comical topics, such as brushes, cement and patios. While these segments were warmly received by listeners, they lasted only months before being canned. The second was in 2002 on Adam Cole's Key 103 afternoon show, where, as Cosmic Dave, Walker took on the persona of a sham psychic and spiritualist, who physically abused his oompa-loompa assistant and fluffed even basic attempts at reading the minds of listeners and the host, before eventually being tracked down to his 'deep secret underground bureau' by the Oompa Loompa Protection Front and apparently dying. The segments were something of a success (being nominated for a New York Radio Award) and were discussed and replayed on other shows on the network, with Cosmic Dave's 'death' prompting over 2,500 messages on the station's website. However, Walker's diversification into comedy would end with his move into television.

Television career

Walker moved into TV with a 6-month spell at Granada Television in Manchester, appearing as a commentator on the Football League Review, before joining BBC regional news programme North West Tonight. During this time, he was nominated for a number of awards and won the Royal Television Society Sports Award in 2005 for Regional Sports Presenter of the Year. He was unable to attend the ceremony because he was covering the Champions League final in Istanbul.

In 2006 Walker started working in London and in 2008 started presenting and reporting at Wimbledon, The Open, Aintree, Ascot and The Derby at Epsom as well as the 6 Nations.

In August 2009 Walker took over from Manish Bhasin as the presenter of Football Focus. He also presents the web-based Friday preview Friday Focus and writes a blog on the BBC website where he discusses the show and football in general. He is also a regular user of social networking service Twitter, and is responsible for the weekly "Tuesday Team News" phenomenon where users are invited to submit desperate puns based around footballers and teams.

Walker was part of the BBC Sport team covering the 2010 FIFA World Cup.^[1] He spent the tournament travelling from Cape Town at the start of the tournament to Johannesburg for the final in a double-decker bus, filming packages to be shown both as part of the TV coverage and online, and providing commentary and news via the BBC's online channels and Twitter. The bus visited a diverse selection of places along its 6,000 km journey – from townships and social projects to sites of cultural and historic significance, with the intention being to provide UK viewers with a flavour of the host nation both inside and out of the stadia.

In addition to his TV work, Walker has returned to radio and can often be heard presenting the midweek 5 Live Sport show for BBC Radio 5 Live.

Personal life

Walker is the son of a Baptist preacher, and his own Christian faith developed in his youth and early adulthood.^[2] He has never worked or played sport on Sundays as a result.^[3] He revealed in an interview with The Sun that he had been offered youth contracts with several football teams but refused due to games being scheduled for Sunday.^[4]

He has been married since 2001 and has three children.^[5]

References

1. ^ "BBC Press Release April 2010". Wscdn.bbc.co.uk. 2010-04-22. http://wscdn.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2010/04_april/22/worldcup.shtml. Retrieved 2011-11-17. 
2. ^ "Dan Walker - an interview". Gracemagazine.org.uk. http://www.gracemagazine.org.uk/articles/historical/walker.htm. Retrieved 2011-11-17. 
3. ^ "Sport & Sundays". E-n.org.uk. http://www.e-n.org.uk/p-4700-Sport-&-Sundays.htm. Retrieved 2011-11-17. 
4. ^ "The Sun". The Sun. 2009-08-11. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/2581009/Christian-footie-host-Dan-Walker-wont-work-Sunday.html. Retrieved 2011-11-17. 
5. ^ Dan Walker. "Dan Walker: England v Wales pits brother against brother". BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/danwalker/2011/03/england_v_wales_pits_brother_a.html. Retrieved 2011-11-17. 

External links

• Day One Magazine 2008 - Dan Walker
• Grace Magazine 2002 - Dan Walker
• 'Christian BBC footie host who refuses to work on a Sunday' - The Sun, 11th August 2009
• Dan Walker TV Newsroom Questions and Answers 2006

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