The true, heart-breaking story of a man the world came to know as the 'ghost runner'. The mystery man threw off his disguise and started to run. Furious stewards gave chase. The crowd roared. A legend was born. Soon the world would know him as 'the ghost runner'.
John Tarrant: the extraordinary man whom nobody could stop. As a hapless teenage boxer in the 1950s, he'd been paid £17 expenses. When he wanted to run, he was banned for life. Now he was fighting back, gate-crashing races all over Britain. No number on his shirt; no friends in high places. Soon he would be a record-breaker, one of the greatest long-distance runners the world has ever seen. This is his true story: The Ghost Runner.
Bill Jones worked for Granada Television for 27 years, where he was an award-winning documentary maker. He was researching a documentary about the centenary of the Manchester running club, Salford Harriers, in 1985 when he first came across the story of John Tarrant and it has haunted him ever since.