![\"Nathan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/bbc_us_articles_995\/1e16248bd4de7b74ba7f54c4dc937727.png\"\/)
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Nathan Murdoch is a familiar face in his home city of Peterborough [Hollie Cole\/BBC]<\/p>\n
“You’re leaving here to draw on garage doors?” Nathan Murdoch recalls his former chief executive quizzing him.<\/p>\n
It was the summer of 2018 and Murdoch, then in his early 30s, had decided to leave behind a decade-long career as a health and safety manager to pursue life as a full-time artist.<\/p>\n
His boss’s reaction “made me doubt myself”, he says. But eight years later, the 40-year-old from Peterborough has built a successful street art business, painted murals around the world and, last week, appeared on Dragons’ Den<\/a>.<\/p>\n His week since appearing on the BBC One business programme has been “pretty intense”.<\/p>\n “I’ve had messages on social media, I’ve gained new followers, I’ve had job offers. The opportunities have been insane.”<\/p>\n Murdoch appeared on Dragons’ Den last week [BBC]<\/p>\n It was not the first time the dad-of-two had found himself in the spotlight.<\/p>\n His mural of The Prodigy frontman Keith Flint<\/a> was an online hit in 2020, and other artworks have attracted national media coverage.<\/p>\n He has got used to being recognised in his hometown, but says it has stepped up over the past week.<\/p>\n “I was at a petrol station on the A1 and a guy asked me if I’d been on Dragons’ Den. It was surreal,” he says.<\/p>\n The growing recognition is a far cry from Murdoch’s childhood. He describes himself as a “poor council kid from Peterborough” who was arrested as a teenager for graffitiing the city.<\/p>\n “I say to the young kids now that in the early 2000s graffiti was hated,” he says.<\/p>\n “Banksy wasn’t popular, street art didn’t exist. In 2004, camera phones didn’t really exist, the internet didn’t exist like it did now.<\/p>\n “My mum told me I had to stop doing it.”<\/p>\n A tribute to The Prodigy singer Keith Flint painted in 2019 helped make Murdoch a household name when it went viral online the following year [BBC]<\/p>\n After leaving school he worked in factories, “but I needed more, so I worked my way into a health and safety role”.<\/p>\n “When I joined that job, I thought it would be the last job I’d ever do,” says Murdoch.<\/p>\n “It was for a prestigious British brand that made yachts. It felt like the pinnacle of my life, like I’d achieved something.”<\/p>\n He quietly built an art business in his spare time, until one day his director asked to speak with him about his future.<\/p>\n “I actually told him I was thinking of leaving\u2026 no-one really knew what I did on the side. When I told him I was thinking of leaving to become a street artist, he just laughed.”<\/p>\n More from Peterborough:<\/p>\n Later that day, he says he was offered an \u00a38,000 pay rise, which he accepted. But three months later, he found himself quitting his job for good.<\/p>\n “My gut was telling me I don’t want to get to 40 years old and wonder ‘what if?’. I thought I wouldn’t be able to live with myself.<\/p>\n “It was the scariest thing I’d ever done. I had a mortgage, a child, my wife was on maternity leave. She asked me if I could do it and I said, ‘I think so’.”<\/p>\n Since then, Murdoch’s business has taken him around the world, but he says he still identifies as working class.<\/p>\n Murdoch painted a mural of England captain Harry Kane during the World Cup [John Devine\/BBC]<\/p>\n “My friend came round the other day and he said I’m so middle class now and burst out laughing because I’ve got a pizza oven,” he says.<\/p>\n “On paper, he’s right. I don’t think I want to admit it \u2013 I think I’d still call myself working class but sometimes I feel guilty saying it. I’m not rich, but I’m miles away from where I started.”<\/p>\n Although Murdoch did not secure investment during his appearance on Dragons’ Den, he did come home with the offer of a job from entrepreneur Steven Bartlett.<\/p>\n “I am working with his team and him to make it happen,” he says. “I’m hoping we’ll have it done by the end of the year. There are some designs in progress.”<\/p>\n Entrepreneur Steven Bartlett invited Murdoch to paint a mural in his office during his appearance on Dragons’ Den [BBC Studios]<\/p>\n Does he ever see himself going back to the corporate world?<\/p>\n “Sometimes I think it’s hard and think maybe I should go back to a day job \u2013 business is a challenging thing,” he says.<\/p>\n “I thought when the business got bigger life would get easier, but as a famous rapper once said, more money, more problems. But I don’t think I could go back to the day job.<\/p>\n “If I decided to give it all up tomorrow, I feel like I achieved more than I ever thought I would do and I’m completely content with that. Anything from now is just a bonus.”<\/p>\n Do you have a story suggestion for Peterborough? Contact us below.<\/p>\n Follow Peterborough news on BBC Sounds<\/a>, Facebook<\/a>, Instagram<\/a> and X<\/a>.<\/p>\n More on this story![\"Nathan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/https:\/\/media.zenfs.com\/en\/bbc_us_articles_995\/fc2f926c2234302d4baae2477bd7cb9f.jpg\"\/)
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