About John McCririck
John Michael McCririck (17 April 1940 – 5 July 2019) was an English horse racing pundit, television personality and journalist. McCririck began his career at The Sporting Life, where he twice won at the British Press Awards for his campaigning journalism, but his role was terminated in 1984. In 1981, he joined ITV Sport's horse racing coverage which moved, during 1984 and 1985, to Channel 4 as Channel 4 Racing. In October 2012, the channel announced that he would be dropped from its team, which McCririck blamed on ageism; he took the matter to an employment tribunal, but lost the case. From the 1980s, McCririck appeared as a contestant on numerous television shows, including Bullseye, You Bet!, Celebrity Big Brother, The Weakest Link, Wife Swap and Celebrity Poker Club. He also appeared on the current affairs discussion programme After Dark. == Early life == Born in Surbiton, Surrey, to property-developer parents, McCririck was educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey, Victoria College, Jersey, and Harrow School, where his fellow pupils included Julian Wilson, later a fellow racing journalist. He left with three O-Levels, having also run the book on cross country races. == Career == After failing to get into the diplomatic service, McCririck was briefly a waiter at The Dorchester hotel. During the era when off-course betting was illegal in the UK, he worked for an illegal bookmaker, before becoming a bookmaker himself, at which he admitted to having failed.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.