Biographies

Sports presenter

Dan Walker's dream was to be a history teacher. When he was turned down for a teaching course in Sheffield he took the opportunity to apply for a postgraduate course in broadcast journalism.

Within a year he was a commentator and sports reporter at Piccadilly Radio in Manchester where he spent four years before moving to the world of television with ITV.

After six months at Granada Dan made the switch to the BBC – working alongside Gordon Burns at North West Tonight in Manchester and winning the Royal Television Society Award as the Best Regional Presenter.

Eighteen months later he was off again... this time down to London to work as a sports presenter on BBC News and BBC World.

Since 2007 Dan has been a regular face on the BBC's golf, horse racing, Six Nations and Wimbledon coverage as well as a regular voice on Football Focus, Match of the Day and Final Score.

It was announced in 2009 that Dan was to become the lead presenter on Football Focus, stepping up to replace Manish Bhasin who has been in the post for five years.