ABOUT MARTIN
Popular presenter on BBC Two’s Springwatch and Autumnwatch series
I left university with a good degree in Zoology. “Well done”, said my Gran at the graduation ceremony. “Now which Zoo are you going to work for darling?”
Soon I was an “improver painter” working for a building company in Bristol, living in the notorious “Fun Palace” (21 Dundonald Road – Redland) along with a group of people some of whom would eventually become well known, Greta Scacchi, Dan Day-Lewis (only a visitor) Paul Mcgann (also visiting Black-Haired Annie – later to become his wife), Amanda Redman (“New Tricks”). The owner of the Fun Palace – “Mike the Boat” – had decided it would be fun to rent the place out to struggling actors at the Bristol Old Vic.
Eventually Mike The Boat threw me out of the Fun Palace (thanks mate!) and I found myself sleeping on the floor of Mandy Redman’s flat (she’d moved out too). Mandy had got a job on a small BBC drama. “Why don’t you try to get into the BBC?” she said, “I’ll get you an interview with one of the producers I’m working with”.
Thank you, Mandy. I still have the letter the producer gave me that resulted in my first two weeks’ work as a researcher in the BBC in Bristol. Thirty years on I stopped producing and jumped . . . to the other side of the camera.
Date of birth
16 April 1956
Academic
1st Class Honors B.Sc. Zoology
Reading University
Other interests
Motorcycling have many bikes and raced (circuit racing) for 6 years
Breeding chickens
Climbing (sport and trad)
Long distance Cycling
Rope access work (qualified rope access technician for last 14 years)