Dermot Murnaghan

Dermot John Murnaghan was born on 26 December 1957 in Barnstaple, Devon, to Wendy (nee Bush) and Vincent Murnaghan. Wikipedia describes his father as a Royal Air Force pilot from Northern Ireland who became a civil engineer, and his mother as coming from Yorkshire. He was reportedly the heaviest baby born at the hospital that year, at 10lb 3oz, which made the local papers.

The family lived in York until he was eight and then moved to Northern Ireland, living in Armagh, Newry and Holywood in County Down. He attended St Malachy's primary school in Armagh and then Sullivan Upper School, a grammar school in Holywood.

Murnaghan studied history at the University of Sussex, earning a BA and then an MA, with his master's work focused on Irish Chartism. He then completed a postgraduate course in journalism at City University in London, before training as a reporter on the Coventry Evening Telegraph in 1984 and 1985.

He entered television in 1985 as a researcher and then reporter on Channel 4's The Business Programme, moving to Business Daily in 1987. He worked in Switzerland for the European Business Channel in 1988 and 1989, then returned for the launch of Channel 4 Daily (1989 to 1992), and in 1992 fronted weekend editions of Channel 4 News.

At ITN he anchored ITV's Lunchtime News from 1993 to 1999, often alongside Julia Somerville, as well as weekend bulletins and Budget coverage. He hosted the current affairs series The Big Story (1993 to 1997) and the crime appeal show Britain's Most Wanted (1997 to 2001). When News at Ten was axed in 1999 he became sole presenter of the ITV Nightly News, and from 2001 he co-anchored the ITV Evening News with Mary Nightingale.

From September 2002 to December 2007 he was a main presenter of BBC Breakfast and fronted BBC One's Six O'Clock News and the Ten O'Clock News. He joined Sky News at the end of 2007, where he anchored the 2011 royal wedding, hosted the Sunday programme Murnaghan (2011 to 2016) and presented Sky News Tonight from 2016 until he left in February 2023. He hosted Sky's overnight coverage of the 2019 general election, branded The Brexit Election.

In the early hours of 31 August 1997 Murnaghan was called in because he lived closest to the ITN studios. He told ITV viewers that Diana, Princess of Wales, had been killed in a car crash in Paris, and then stayed on air for about 18 hours. He later said it felt like telling a close relative that another close relative had died.

In 1998 he interviewed Peter Mandelson on ITV's Lunchtime News about an undeclared loan from Geoffrey Robinson. Mandelson resigned the next day, and the interview won the Royal Television Society award for best interview of 1998.

On 8 September 2022, reporting for Sky News, he announced the death of Queen Elizabeth II and went on to present the funeral coverage with Anna Botting.

Murnaghan co-presented BBC Two's revival of Treasure Hunt with Suzi Perry (2002 to 2003) and hosted the BBC quiz show Eggheads from 2003 to 2014, along with its spin-off Are You an Egghead? in 2008 and 2009. After his move to Sky he shared Eggheads with Jeremy Vine, who later took over. He also guest presented travel reports for Wish You Were Here...? and Holiday, made a cameo as a newsreader in the 2004 film Wimbledon, and later hosted the true crime series Killer Britain (2020 to 2025) and Crimes That Shook Britain for Channel 5.

In 1989 Murnaghan married Maria Keegan, a journalist. They had three daughters, Kitty, Molly and Alice, and a son, Jack. He was an Arsenal supporter and a keen cyclist. On 9 March 2017 he was knocked off his bike in a hit and run in Kentish Town while cycling to work at Sky News. He said the driver had been using a mobile phone, and the bruising kept him off air for a time.

Murnaghan believed interviewers should hold power to account. After leaving Sky he joked that, watching from his sofa, he got frustrated when politicians got off lightly, saying he was throwing soft shoes at the television screen because questioning them was his obsession. After his cancer diagnosis he said his priorities had become family first, and he campaigned for men to get tested and for routine prostate screening on the NHS.

Murnaghan worked across every major British news broadcaster and was on air for many of the biggest stories of his era, from the death of Diana in 1997 to the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022. Colleagues remembered him as calm, sharp and kind. Beth Rigby called him peerless in the presenter chair, Anna Botting said he would always be a legend of news, and BBC News interim chief Jonathan Munro called him a true gentleman. David Cameron and Ed Davey said his openness about prostate cancer would have encouraged many men to get tested and saved lives.

Royal Television Society award for best interview of 1998, for his interview with Peter Mandelson.

Television and Radio Industries Club newscaster of the year, 2000.

After leaving Sky News, Murnaghan launched the podcast Legends of News, talking to seasoned journalists and correspondents about the major stories they had covered. He also continued to front true crime documentaries, including Killer Britain for Crime and Investigation UK and Crimes That Shook Britain for Channel 5.

In June 2025 Murnaghan revealed that he had been diagnosed with stage IV prostate cancer and said he was responding well to treatment. He became an ambassador for Prostate Cancer Research and urged men over 50, those in high risk groups or anyone with symptoms to get tested.

He died peacefully at home in North London on the morning of 11 July 2026, aged 68, with his family at his side. His family announced his death on his X account and said the funeral would be a small family ceremony, followed later in the year by a memorial service for friends and colleagues at St Bride's Church, Fleet Street, the journalists' church. They asked anyone wishing to remember him to consider supporting Prostate Cancer UK, Prostate Cancer Research and North London Hospice.