Paul Martin (TV presenter)

Martin was born in Teddington, Middlesex. His family subsequently moved to Cornwall, where he was educated at Falmouth Grammar School[2] and then studied art and woodworking at Falmouth College of Arts[3] (now Falmouth University).

He then developed parallel careers, as an antiques trader and dealer and as a session musician drummer. Martin worked with Average White Band, The Quireboys and The Dogs D'Amour in the 1990s.[3] Towards the end of the decade, along with his session and live work, Martin taught drums and percussion in a tuition centre within a local instrument shop. He still plays with local jazz and blues bands around Wiltshire.

Paul Martin enjoys a cup of tea during a recording of Flog It! in Birmingham 2014

From the age of 25, he owned a pitch on London's Portobello Road.[3] He also worked as an antiques props stylist for magazines including Marie Claire and New Woman, whilst undertaking larger projects designing antique sets for television shoots for BBC One's The Clothes Show and Granada TV.[3] More recently he ran the shop The Table Gallery in Marlborough, Wiltshire, specialising in 17th- and 18th-century Welsh and English oak furniture and Victorian lavatories.[2]

Martin was discovered by a team from BBC Bristol when he was interviewed about his passion for oak furniture. He was then signed up to present Flog It!, which has led to a series of television shows and spin-off books.[2]

In 2014, he began hosting I Never Knew That About Britain for the ITV network.

He has presented the BBC Countryfile spin-offs Summer Diaries, Spring Diaries, Autumn Diaries and Winter Diaries since 2016.[4]

On 2 October 2018, the BBC announced it would cancel Flog It!, but that Martin would return to host two new similar shows as part of its "modernised" new daytime schedule—one of which would use Martin's skills as a dealer to train members of the public, the second being an antiques-based game show.[5]

The first of these programmes, Make Me a Dealer, began its inaugural series on 5 November 2018, followed by the antiques game show Curiosity in spring 2019.[6]

Martin is married to BBC production co-ordinator Charlotte Godfrey.[1] In 2007 the couple moved to Seend in Wiltshire, to a property built in the 1830s, with a smallholding of 30 acres (12 ha) of land, surrounded by its own arboretum.[7]

• Paul Martin at IMDb
• Paul Martin goes behind the scenes of Flog it!