Dan Walker - Television Career

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. 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.

On Saturday 26 November 2011, Gary Speed appeared as a guest on Football Focus with Walker. The two men spent a total of about four hours with each other on the day. Walker said of Speed: "I always found him to be kind, funny, intelligent and insightful. I found him to be a top bloke and really enjoyed his company." The following morning on Sunday 27 November 2011, Walker received the news that Speed had died at his house in Cheshire. Walker said that he was "stunned" by Speed's death and that he was "incredibly saddened". He had known Speed for quite a long time and had played football with him in a charity match two months earlier.

In March 2012, Walker said that he was "staggered by the depth of feeling and shock" on the Sunday when Speed's death was announced.

In addition to Walker's TV work, he has returned to radio and can often be heard presenting the midweek 5 Live Sport show for BBC Radio 5 Live. He also appears on Tony Livesey's 'Tony's Team talk' on BBC 5 Live every Wednesday night.