Martel Maxwell (born 9 March 1977) is a Scottish television presenter and journalist. She has been one of the presenters of the property show ''

Homes Under the Hammer ''Homes Under the Hammer'' is a British factual renovation and auction television series that is screened on BBC One as part of the daytime schedule. The series has been running since 17 November 2003, and is currently presented by Martin Rober ...

'' since 2017. She also writes a column for the

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

-based newspaper '' Evening Telegraph''.

Early life

Maxwell was born on 9 March 1977, and was raised in

. She attended the

High School of Dundee The High School of Dundee is a private, co-educational, day school in Dundee, Scotland, which provides nursery, primary and secondary education to just over one thousand pupils. Its foundation has been dated to 1239, and it is the only private sc ...

, before studying law at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

and then taking a postgraduate diploma in law at the

University of Dundee The University of Dundee is a public research university based in Dundee, Scotland. It was founded as a university college in 1881 with a donation from the prominent Baxter family of textile manufacturers. The institution was, for most of its ...

. Instead of continuing with law, Maxwell turned to journalism.

Newspaper journalism

Maxwell's first post was as a graduate intern at ''

The Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot Plasma (physics), plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as ...

'' taking a diploma in newspaper journalism at London City University. After seven years at ''The Sun'' writing for city, women's news, and

showbusiness Show business, sometimes shortened to show biz or showbiz (since 1945), is a vernacular term for all aspects of the entertainment industry.''Oxford English Dictionary'' 2nd Ed. (1989) From the business side (including managers, agents, produce ...

, she went freelance. Maxwell wrote some freelance opinion pieces for '' The Scottish Sun'' and since 2013 has written a weekly column for local paper '' Evening Telegraph'' in Dundee.

Broadcast journalism

Maxwell's earliest broadcast job was in 2010 as an occasional reporter on the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

show ''

The One Show ''The One Show'' is a British television magazine and chat show programme. Broadcast live on BBC One weekdays at 7:00 pm, it features topical stories and studio guests. It is currently co-hosted by Alex Jones, Roman Kemp, Ronan Keating ...

'' and then a regular entertainment contributor on the ITV show ''

Lorraine Lorraine, also , ; ; Lorrain: ''Louréne''; Lorraine Franconian: ''Lottringe''; ; ; is a cultural and historical region in Eastern France, now located in the administrative region of Grand Est. Its name stems from the medieval kingdom of ...

'' and one of the presenters of a short-lived

BBC3 BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...

consumer affairs programme ''Don't Get Screwed'' and

BBC Scotland BBC Scotland is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. Its headquarters are in Glasgow, employing approximately 1,250 staff as of 2017, to produce 15,000 hours of television and radio programming per year. BBC Scotla ...

magazine show ''On the Road''. Since 2017, she has been one of the three presenters of the BBC property programme ''

'', replacing Lucy Alexander. Maxwell was an occasional guest presenter on

BBC Radio Scotland BBC Radio Scotland is a Scottish national radio network owned and operated by BBC Scotland, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. It replaced the Scottish BBC Radio 4 opt-out service of the same name from 23 N ...

and in 2008, had her own show on

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

station

Talk 107 talk107 was an Independent Local Radio station based in Edinburgh, Scotland, broadcasting a phone-in based talk format. It was the UK's first local commercial talk licence to be awarded outside London and was the only station of its kind in Sco ...

until the station folded. In 2021, she provided voiceover narration for the third series of BBC Scotland's documentary ''Inside Central Station''.

Writer

Maxwell published a novel, ''Scandalous'', in 2010. Based on her experiences as a showbusiness reporter, ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

'' considered that it gave "a thrilling insight into the celebrity-baiting world of the kiss and tell" but also considered that "the narrative is weighed down by product placement".

Personal life

Maxwell lives near Dundee with her husband, Jamie Parret, and their three sons.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maxwell, Martel Living people Mass media people from Dundee Journalists from Dundee People educated at the High School of Dundee Alumni of City, University of London Alumni of the University of Dundee Alumni of the University of Edinburgh The Sun (United Kingdom) people Scottish television presenters Scottish radio presenters Scottish women radio presenters Scottish women television presenters Scottish television journalists 1977 births