From Dundonald to Match of the Day

It's fair to say Colin Murray has crammed a lot of work into his 33 years.

Colin Murray has built up an eclectic CV

From covering music festivals, writing for a newspaper in Toronto to late night American football broadcasts, the Dundonald man has a pretty varied CV.

Educated at Regent House Grammar School (from which he says he was "asked to leave") and Dundondald High School, his first break in journalism was as a trainee at the Newsletter newspaper in Northern Ireland.

There followed a year on a fellowship at the Toronto Star in the mid-1990s, before returning home to set up a pop magazine called Blank - the highest circulating magazine of its type at the time in Northern Ireland.

Mr Murray also started writing a pop column for the Sunday People before landing a job as co-host for BBC Radio 1's Session In Northern Ireland - after attending a five-minute audition believing it was for BBC Radio Ulster.

By 2001, he was also deputising for daytime radio hosts on Radio 1, and in October 2001 spent two weeks filling in on Late Drive for Dave Pearce.

He briefly quit radio for a stint on the Channel Four breakfast show RI:SE, which he later told the Independent newspaper "scared me off TV for a long time".

He returned to radio and after a short stay as Steve Lamacq's replacement on the Evening Session, Mr Murray teamed up with Edith Bowman (his former co-host from RI:SE) to host the Colin and Edith show.

Lunchtime

Originally going out between 10am and 1pm every Saturday and Sunday, in March 2004 the pair moved to weekday daytimes taking over the Lunchtime Show from Mark and Lard.

Over their two years on the show, its audiences rose to a 10-year high.

In June 2006, Radio 1 announced that Colin and Edith would part company, with the latter continuing on the lunchtime show solo and Murray taking over a new weeknight 10pm - midnight show, once held by John Peel.

As well as his extensive music broadcasting, Mr Murray has also experience covering a diverse range of sports.

He currently presents BBC Radio Five Live's Fighting Talk on Saturday mornings - a sports panel game.

He has presented American football on Channel 5 and commentated on the European Poker Tour.

He was the anchorman for Channel 5's Europa League coverage and this year presented coverage of the BDO World Darts Championship on the BBC.

Other TV work includes presenting coverage of music festivals, including Glastonbury, and presenting EastEnders Revealed on BBC3.

He has featured in Comic Relief Does Fame Academy, competed in Celebrity Masterchef and guested on the dictionary Corner on Channel 4's Countdown.

On 22 April 2010, he was confirmed as Adrian Chiles' replacement on Match of the Day 2.

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