Education
He attended Saint Mary"s Menston in West Yorkshire.
He attended Saint Mary"s Menston in West Yorkshire.
He started his career as a tea boy at British Broadcasting Corporation Manchester working in DEF II programming. He then worked on shows such as Reportage, The Sunday Show, Fist of fun, and Lifeswaps with Paul O"Grady. He later worked as a producer at Music Television on Hanging Out with Davina McCall, and at the Big Breakfast.
He re-joined the British Broadcasting Corporation to work for Jane Root in the Independent Commissioning Group, and later developed Radio One television for Roly Keating, on UKTV. He launched and ran United Kingdom Play, a music and comedy channel owned by UKTV from 1998.
British Broadcasting Corporation Choice
He joined British Broadcasting Corporation Choice, the British Broadcasting Corporation"s forerunner to British Broadcasting Corporation Three, becoming Head of Programmes in 2000, and then Controller. British Broadcasting Corporation Three
Became the first channel controller of British Broadcasting Corporation Three, which launched in February 2003.
He commissioned comedies including Little Britain (which had been originally commissioned by British Broadcasting Corporation Radio 4), Pulling, and Early Doors as well as various dramas including Torchwood, and Conviction. He kickstarted parenting programming on television, with Who Rules The Roost, Honey, We"re Killing The Kids, Little Angels and The House of Tiny Tearaways both presented by Tanya Byron.
Other commissioned shows included Flashmob The Opera (a live opera from Paddington station) and Flashmob The Opera: Meadowhall.
He was tipped as an outsider in the running for the controllership of British Broadcasting Corporation One in 2007. In 2004 The Observer included Murphy in a list of 80 young people who they believed would shape people"s lives in the early 21st Century. Commercial Broadcasters
After British Broadcasting Corporation Three he joined RDF Media in 2006 where he stayed for 11 weeks.
Between 2006 and 2008, he was the Creative Director of Twofour Broadcast.
He joined in May 2009 and commissioned a variety of drama, entertainment, and factual programmes including Got to Dance, Must Be the Music, A League of Their Own, Terry Pratchett"s Going Postal, Strike Back, Mad Dogs, The Runaway, Little Crackers, Ross Kemp: Middle East Special, Pineapple Dance Studios, Louie Spence"s Showbusiness, An Idiot Abroad, Trollied, Mount Pleasant, Spy, Stella, Starlings, among many others In November 2010 he was made Director of Commissioning across all Sky Entertainment channels.
He was also given responsibility for launching, a new entertainment channel which is the home of the majority of Home Box Office content in the United Kingdom. He bought Mad Men (previously at the British Broadcasting Corporation), Entourage (previously at Independent Television) as well as Blue Bloods and The Borgias. He commissioned screenwriter Paul Abbott to make "s first drama, Hit & Mission, starring Chloƫ Sevigny, commissioned cult comedy This is Jinsy, brought Alan Partridge back to television, commissioned Kathy Burke"s Walking and Talking, Julia Davis"s new comedy Hunderby, as well as documentary Flying Monsters with David Attenborough. launched on 1 February 2011.
In May 2012, he was made Director of Entertainment Channels at Sky, overseeing all of the entertainment and commissioning portfolio.
He studied Political Geography at Clare College, Cambridge in 1990. He is openly gay and first spoke publicly about his sexual orientation in a 2012 interview.