Tributes have been paid to Dame Jenni Murray, who hosted BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour for more than three decades and died over the weekend at the age of 75.
Yorkshire native Murray joined the programme in 1987 and left in 2020 as its longest-serving presenter.
BBC director general Tim Davie described her as “a broadcasting icon”, while Radio 4 controller Mohit Bakaya remembered a “warm, fearless and beloved by listeners” presenter.
“During her decades at Woman’s Hour, she helped shape the national conversation with intelligence, rigour and a remarkable ability to connect with audiences,” Bakaya added.
“[She] leaves an indelible legacy on generations of listeners. We are profoundly grateful for her outstanding contribution to Radio 4, and she will be deeply missed.”
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In her three decades on the show, highlights included interviews with towering female figures including Hollywood icon Bette Davis, UK PM Margaret Thatcher, first lady and aspiring president Hillary Clinton and Handmaid’s Tale author Margaret Atwood.
The host previously revealeded on air that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer, back in 2006, and also also spoke openly about her weight loss surgery and the menopause.
Davie said: “Dame Jenni was, simply put, a broadcasting icon. Throughout her three groundbreaking decades on Woman’s Hour, Jenni created a safe space for her audience thanks to her warmth, intelligence and courage.
“We shall all miss her terribly. Her legacy endures in the countless conversations she started, the many issues she championed and the lives she touched.”
Murray attended grammar school in her Barnsley hometown before going on to study French and drama at the University of Hull.
Her first broadcasting gig was in 1973 on local radio in Bristol, moving on to present BBC TV’s South Today between 1978 and 1983.
She also worked on BBC Two’s Newsnight and Radio 4’s Today programme before taking over from Sue MacGregor on Woman’s Hour in 1987.
She once said it was no surprise that she had chosen to champion women’s issues in the media as she “recognised very early on that girls did not have it as easy as boys did”.
In 2011, she received a damehood in recognition of her contribution to broadcasting, and also won two Sony Awards and membership of the Radio Academy Hall of Fame during her long career.
On Murray’s final Woan’s Hour in 2020, novelist and poet Jackie Kay saluted Dame Jenni for “holding up a mirror to the real world and everything that’s been going on in it”, while MP Harriet Harman, praised her “tremendous legacy”.
The broadcaster ended her final programme with Helen Reddy’s feminist anthem I Am Woman.
Murray also wrote for newspapers, including the Daily Express and Daily Mail, and published several books including her biography Memoirs of a Not So Dutiful Daughter and a guide to the menopause titled Is It Me Or Is It Hot In Here?
Image: J Miall/Creative Commons
