Best known as the charismatic host of Homes Under the Hammer, Martin Roberts has become one of Britain’s most familiar faces in property and lifestyle broadcasting.
Martin Roberts
With a career spanning radio, children’s TV, and primetime reality shows like I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here!, he’s a true all-rounder in the world of entertainment. Beyond the screen, Martin is a passionate advocate for child mental health and literacy through his foundation and writing.
In this exclusive interview with Champions Speakers Agency, the celebrity speaker shares how a chance conversation in a BBC canteen changed his life, the proudest moment of his career, and the advice he’d offer to his younger self starting out in broadcasting.
Q1. Your entry into British television is quite unconventional. Could you walk us through how that moment of curiosity led to a long-standing career on screen?
Martin Roberts:
Oh, wow. My career in TV started a very bizarre way. I was actually in the queue at the takeaway canteen at the BBC in Manchester, and the BBC shared the canteen and the catering facilities—television and radio.
And I was working in local radio. I went out one lunchtime to get my lunch on a break from my local radio thing that I was working on. I was just standing in the queue and this chap at the side of me—we were just chatting. There was a piece of lemon meringue pie, and it was literally phosphorus yellow. I mean, it was glowing. We were just laughing about the lemon meringue pie.
As we walked away, he said, “By the way, what do you do?”
“Oh, I work downstairs in the local radio.”
He said, “What about television?”
I was like, “No, why?”
“If you ever fancy it, Peter, fifth floor.”
I was like, “All right.”
So the curiosity at the end of the day got the better of me. I rang the switchboard.
“Is there a Peter on the fifth floor?”
And they went, “Well, only Peter, the head of television.”
I was like, “Oh, okay.”
So I phoned him up, and he was the head of television. I was like, “Okay.” He said, “No, I just saw something in you, and I thought… here are a few people to call, and I’ll put in a good word for you.”
So I started out in kids TV in Manchester—did a few kids TV shows. At the same time, I was carrying on as a journalist, doing travel reporting and all sorts of things. I ended up doing stuff for Radio 4, and then I got a break and ended up presenting Wish You Were Here, which is a travel show.
And that then led into Homes Under the Hammer, which was one of those shows—who could have predicted this? But we’re 19 years on and still going strong.
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Q2. Across your diverse television career, are there moments that stand out as personally meaningful or particularly memorable to you?
Martin Roberts:
Favourite TV moment… There’s a few. When you see people who have been positively affected by what you do—and I meet them all the time on Homes Under the Hammer—people who’ve done what I’ve said and gone on and been really successful.
There was one lady who was standing in the house and she bought it with the money that her mum had left her, and her mum had just passed away. So on the face of it, really sad. It was sad. But she said, “I was with my mum in the last stages of her life, and we were listening and watching you from the hospice together.” And my mum turned around to me one day and said, “When I die, I’m leaving you some money. You must do what this young man tells you,” pointing at me.
And there we were six months later, with a house that she bought as a result of watching Homes Under the Hammer with her mum. That was a really touching little moment.
Just people in the street who come up, and clearly it’s had a positive help on them in their life. Often, people come across it at times when life is difficult at home—maybe being a young parent or going through having kids at home, or maybe you’ve done it, maybe poorly or whatever it might be.
So sometimes people come to it in difficult times, and it helps them get through those times. And that’s always wonderful to hear.
And then, I suppose, going on I’m A Celebrity was an interesting experience. That had lots of highs and lots of lows, but overall, I thought that was quite an extraordinary experience for me to go through. And I do look back at bits of that—which, obviously, if you search on YouTube, there’s lots of funny clips—and some of it is quite genuinely hysterical.
But I’d say what I’m doing now, The Monty, that’s television that can save lives. And that’s a privilege to be part of.
Q3. You’ve worn many hats—from broadcaster to author to charity founder. Which professional achievement are you most proud of, and why?
Martin Roberts:
I’m really proud of… I’m going to do property training courses, which is great—to see people take my advice and our trainings and go on to be successful.
One of the things we really encourage is charitable giving. So when people are successful, we suggest that they’re giving a portion of their earnings and their success back to charity—which means I’m directly, if you like, somewhere down the line, hopefully benefiting all sorts of charities.
But I’ve also written a series of children’s books, called The Villes, and one of those I wrote especially for the NSPCC—or in conjunction with, in support of the NSPCC. And that’s to do with my—I’ve got a charity called the Martin Roberts Foundation, which is all about child mental wellbeing. So it’s to encourage initiatives which help with children and young people’s mental wellbeing.
This book gets kids thinking about emotions in a supportive way and also gets them to reach out for help if they need it through Childline and the NSPCC.
And we managed to raise enough money to give two free copies of this book to every single primary school in the UK and every single public library. And we’re looking to try and raise more to give more books out to individual children.
We’ve already handed out about 40,000 books, but there’s another 700,000 children in the kind of age range that we’re looking at to go, so we will continue with that. But getting that book out there was a hugely proud moment for me.
Q4. Looking back on your journey, what advice would you give to your younger self starting out in media and public life?
Martin Roberts:
Gosh… I would say to a young me—don’t sweat the small stuff. Things have a habit of coming right in the end.
Do it now. It’s something I was told by somebody on a hospital ward when I was working at a hospital radio station. This guy said three words: “Do it now.”
And we often procrastinate, don’t we? We spend more time worrying about doing what we’ve got to do than actually doing it. Once we do, we actually feel quite good.
So I’d say follow that through—and just have fun. Life is short. Life is short. Have fun every moment that you can.
This exclusive interview with Martin Roberts was conducted by Megan Lupton of The Motivational Speakers Agency.
