Margaret Mary Murray became the Head of Gaelic, BBC Scotland, in January 2005. She was born and brought up on the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles.
Margaret Mary attended the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway and continued her studies at Glasgow University where she gained an honours degree in Celtic Studies. On graduating in 1988, she joined BBC Scotland's Gaelic department as a television researcher.
The Gaelic department is a tri-media, multi-genre unit and Margaret Mary developed her programme making skills on a wide variety of programmes ranging from children's programmes to documentaries, drama and current affairs.
From 1988 to 1990, Margaret Mary was a researcher and occasional presenter on the first Gaelic youth TV series, Brag (Impact). In 1991, she produced and directed a series of six award-winning social and cultural documentaries charting the relationship between the Gael and the sea, An Ataireachd Bhuan (The Everlasting Sea). Three further social history documentaries recounted the experience of Second World War veterans, Curaidhean (Heroes).
1993 marked the start of the UK's first weekly European current affairs programme, Eorpa (Europe). This groundbreaking series is now an established part of Scotland's media landscape and has won a number of national and international awards for its innovative perspective on European life. Margaret Mary was series producer of Eorpa from 1993 to 1998 and editor from 1998 to 2003.
In 1995 and 1997, in collaboration with award-winning drama director Bill MacLeod, Murray produced two TV dramas. The first, a short film, centred around two men working at the Whaling in South Georgia, Roimh Ghaoith a Gheamhraidh (Before Winter Winds). The second, shot in the Bays of Harris, was an adaptation of Canadian writer Alistair Macleod's short story, The Lost Salt Gift of Blood, An Tiodhlac.
In 1998, Margaret Mary became editor, responsible for the BBC's Gaelic language news and current affairs programming on radio and television and children's programmes. In 2003, she was appointed executive editor of the Gaelic department and in 2005 appointed Head of Gaelic.
As Head of Gaelic she successfully expanded and re-launched the Radio nan Gaidheal schedule, introducing regular sports programming for the first time and worked closely with other Heads of Department within BBC Scotland to deliver creative collaborations such as BBC Scotland’s contribution and coverage of Highland 2007, bilingual simulcasts with Radio Scotland and the BBC SSO, election and events coverage.
The past two years have been dominated by negotiations around the delivery of the new Gaelic Digital Service and Margaret Mary led this work on behalf of BBC Scotland, working with partners, The Gaelic Media Service, to design a new digital service for Scotland. In January 2008, the BBC Trust gave their approval for the launch of this service as a BBC licensed service and Margaret Mary was appointed as its first Head of Service.