Here's to you John Hanmer, a great racing character

BBC Racing and its demise featured in the Racing Post recently (January 1), but while questionable management decisions were highlighted, there were also some excellent people who set the standard in broadcasting the sport over many decades.

One of those excellent people, John Hanmer, is remembered this coming week. His funeral will take place at Ardington Church, near Wantage, on Tuesday, and friends and colleagues will be out in force.

John, who died last month aged 82, was ‘Mr Melling,’ the distinctive gravelly BBC voice who called 32 Grand Nationals from a tower in the centre of Aintree racecourse, taking them over the first three fences, and later the 10th, 11th and 12th, and over the Melling Road before handing back to the main commentator in the grandstand. It was the same format on the second circuit.