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It was an age before a multiplicity of channels blurred things, a time when the splendid instrument of the voice itself was a central part of the job in a way it is not quite today.
Like O’Sullevan and the others, Walker could convey drama by lowering his register, for all his high-octane excitement and the odd malapropism that were part of his legend. His autobiography, ‘Unless I Am Very Much Mistaken,’ sold like hot cakes.
When he was being treated for cancer — which turned out to be not as serious as he feared nearly a decade ago — he told me: ‘I have had a bloody marvellous life doing what I wanted to do — travelling the world with fast-moving, high-stepping, ambitious, capable people.’