Marie Louise Muir
Derry-born Marie-Louise Muir presents Arts Extra on BBC Radio Ulster four nights a week and began her broadcasting career while working in arts in the Maiden City. Here, she sums up her impressions of Northern Ireland’s rich cultural scene and emphasises the need for a lasting legacy from Derry’s year as UK City of Culture.
How did you get started in broadcasting?
I started freelancing in 1992 in BBC Radio Foyle. I was doing part time work with Impact 92, a year-long arts festival in the city, and went to see the then head of BBC Radio Foyle, Charlie Warmington, about getting arts coverage on some of the radio shows. I told him I was interested in broadcasting so he suggested I cut my teeth on interviewing the artists, writers and actors who were performing in the city. I would pick performers up from the City of Derry Airport and before I dropped them off at their digs, I would interview them.
I learned everything I know on the job, with great help from Radio Foyle staff who showed me how to work equipment, cut and splice tape and how to shape a broadcast piece. I got the broadcasting bug and left arts administration at the end of 1992 and freelanced seriously from then on. I went on to present programmes on both BBC Radio Foyle and BBC Radio Ulster until 1998 when I moved to Belfast to take part in the BBC Northern Ireland production training scheme. I worked as a TV assistant producer for the next six years before moving back to radio presentation in 2004, taking over Arts Extra on BBC Radio Ulster.
In your view, what makes Northern Ireland’s arts and culture scene stand out?
In my nine years of broadcasting arts and culture in Northern Ireland, the key word for me would be ‘confidence’. We could fill Arts Extra twice over every night with the strength and quality of local work. This is work which shines with passion and self-belief. It can sit alongside work from the so-called metropolitan art capitals.
It doesn’t rest on the Troubles tag, nor does it have an inferiority complex to the rest of the world. It knows its voice, and it speaks with purpose. Social media has played a huge role in getting voices heard. I use facebook and twitter to interact, talk and debate with many of our artists. It’s instant access to a cultural conversation. People are not afraid of voicing their opinions. I like that.
What have been the highlights in your career to date?
Sitting in Seamus Heaney’s house for the 25th anniversary of the publication of his seminal work ‘Death of a Naturalist’ has to be top of the list. These are poems etched in my childhood memory from school. Poems like ‘Death of a Naturalist’, ‘Midterm Break’ and ‘Follower’ are among my all-time favourites. Here I was, sitting opposite him in his front room, talking to him about the poems, why he wrote them, and the moment he got sent the first bound copies of the book and unpacking them on his kitchen table.
Most recently, being in the Guildhall in Derry in July 2010 when Derry won the UK City of Culture title was among my proudest and most moving work experiences ever. There is a clip that is played over and over again of me in tears, saying that the Guildhall had “gone bananas” on hearing the news.
What are you most looking forward to about Derry’s year as City of Culture?
I want the city to achieve a lasting cultural legacy. When I worked on the last cultural festival in 1992 the word ‘legacy’ wasn’t fully achieved. The city had lost the Orchard Gallery, a jewel in the international visual arts crown, and Field Day Theatre Company had moved its base from the city to Dublin.
Venues like the Playhouse, the Verbal Arts Centre, the Void Gallery and the CCA Derry~Londonderry (which are co-curating the Turner Prize 2013) and the Waterside Theatre prove there is a strong, vibrant arts life in the city. There are writers, dancers, musicians, actors, directors, film-makers and digital media creatives working there, and while a City of Culture title puts a national and international focus on the place, the city’s cultural title cannot end on the 31st of December 2013.
What are the main pros and cons about working in radio?
There are genuinely no cons as far as I am concerned. When I got Arts Extra, it was my dream job. I had worked in TV and had enjoyed the work, but I made a very conscious decision to return to radio. Radio has a connection with its audience that I love. I find people tend to recognise my voice, rather than me, which always makes me smile. I am an arts junkie and take my work everywhere with me, from a new novel to a preview DVD of a TV programme to downloading a band’s album. I get a kick of getting first listens to new material and value that people want my critical opinion.
How do you relax outside work?
I have two young children and so when I am not at work, I am with them. We joined a family gym recently, so we go swimming, and that is always a good belly laugh. I find baking very relaxing but end up eating too much of what I make. Hence joining the gym.
I spend far too much time on social media and tell myself it’s for work but, truth be told, it satisfies the nosey side of me; I can lose too much time on it. I am also known to lose time watching rubbish TV. My current guilty pleasure is Revenge on E4.
