Luke Harvey: 'The cameraman followed me - and I've never found out why!'

A clash of schedules while being interviewed by the BBC at the Grand National meeting in 2016 led to a dash by Luke Harvey being captured on camera at Aintree.

The ex-jockey, at the time working for Radio 5 Live, joined opera singer and Grand National ambassador Laura Wright in front of the cameras until time ran out. Then he had to dash off to meet a radio engagement.

The clip, which went viral on social media, was so popular that the scene was restaged on the BBC the following day . . . with Wright running away from Harvey.

Luke Harvey, racing broadcaster

I was at Aintree working for BBC Radio 5 Live one morning at the National meeting in 2016 when Mike Bushell from BBC TV collared me and asked me to do an interview with the opera singer Laura Wright, talking about racing, fashion and stuff.

I agreed, but before we started I told the producer that I had to be done by 8.47am at the latest as I had to go back to the press room and do my stuff for the radio, and if you're not done I'm just going to clear off.

Anyway, despite assurances that we would be finished by that time I saw the producers fingers up go up showing seven whilst Laura was still talking, so I just cleared off!

I got sent out of shot initially but for some reason – and I've never found out why – the cameraman followed me, showing me running away back to the press room around the side of the paddock.

Within minutes, some social media guru called Dapper Laughs, who has over 700,000 followers on Instagram, had put the clip out with a catchline of 'when the wife sees you on the telly with the girlfriend.' and it went mental. Literally, with ten minutes of me being on it went viral.

I remember that Laura had a PR woman with her and they hit the jackpot. I don't think many people had heard of Laura for singing opera at that time, but soon everyone had heard of her.

The next day, the BBC even did a spoof follow-up of her running away from me, which was good fun. Even 5 Live loved it, which is just as well as they were paying my wages and, yes, I did manage to get back to the press room in time. I'm still living the whole episode down.

During his spell on 5 Live, Harvey came up with a couple of other classics across the airwaves, particularly at the Cheltenham Festival.

My career is littered with gaffs and during the Gold Cup in 2014 I remember saying on the first circuit that the eventual winner, Lord Windermere, was "the only horse that won't be winning".

The next day they played my comments followed by John Hunt's commentary of Lord Windermere getting up to win, which a lot of people enjoyed.

The following year, on the first circuit of the World Hurdle, I said that leader Cole Harden "would need an outboard motor to keep up this gallop" which, of course, he did and won cosily in the end.

Laura Wright, opera singer and Grand National ambassador

As a Randox Grand National Festival ambassador I was being asked about fashion by the BBC.

Luke had been interviewed just before me and was trying to get the producer’s attention to make sure he could leave as he had another interview to do and was running late.

Unfortunately, the only way he could get to where he needed to be was by running through the back of the shot.

I managed not to laugh as I was being interviewed, but the moment the cameras stopped we were all in hysterics. I got the chance to turn the tables on him later though and I still won’t let him forget it!

Read more Magic TV moments . . .

'The most amazing race, not only that I've commentated on, but that I've seen'

Rishi Persad: 'The thought in my head was 'holy s***, this is massive'

Derek Thompson: 'I simply assumed it was a woman and still laugh about it now'

Hayley Moore: 'It was a random thing to do. I didn't expect it to go viral'

Luke Harvey: 'It very soon dawned on me that I was part of television gold'

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