Martin Christopher Bayfield (born 21 December 1966) is an English broadcaster, actor, stuntman and former rugby union player who played lock forward for

Northampton Saints Northampton Saints (officially Northampton Rugby Football Club) is a professional rugby union club from Northampton, England. The club plays in Premiership Rugby, England's top division of rugby union. It was formed in 1880 as "Northampton St. ...

Bedford Blues Bedford Blues are a semi-professional rugby union club in the town of Bedford, England, currently playing in the RFU Championship. History Foundation and 19th century Bedford RUFC was founded in 1886 after an amalgamation between Bedford Rove ...

and

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, gaining 31 England and 3 Lions caps.

Early life and career

Bayfield was born in

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

and was educated at

Bedford School Bedford School is a 7–18 Single-sex education, boys Public school (United Kingdom), public school in the county town of Bedford in England. Founded in 1552, it is the oldest of four independent schools in Bedford run by the Harpur Trust. Bed ...

. He served with the Metropolitan Police from 1985 to 1989, before transferring to

Bedfordshire Police Bedfordshire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing the ceremonial county of Bedfordshire in England, which includes the unitary authorities of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Luton. Its headquarters are in the town of ...

. The 208 cm (6 ft 10in) tall Bayfield made his England debut in 1991, and although he was omitted from the 1991 World Cup squad, he was a part of the 1992 Five Nations Grand Slam winning side. He went on the

1993 British Lions tour to New Zealand In 1993 the British Lions rugby union team toured New Zealand. This was the last Lions tour in the sport's amateur era. The Lions were managed by Geoff Cooke, coached by Ian McGeechan and Dick Best, and captained by Gavin Hastings. The Lio ...

, and was part of the 1995 World Cup squad. He would play 18 times partnering Martin Johnson. His final appearance for England came in the 1996 Five Nations match against

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

. His last game was against

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

in February 1998; a neck injury sustained in training a few days later forced him to retire.

Film and television career

Since retirement, Bayfield has worked as a

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

, an

after-dinner speaker Public speaking, is the practice of delivering speeches to a live audience. Throughout history, public speaking has held significant cultural, religious, and political importance, emphasizing the necessity of effective rhetorical skills. It all ...

, and has appeared in all of the ''Harry Potter'' films playing the

half-giant Half-giants are fictional beings that have one parent that is a giant and another parent that is a different species. Description In most cases, a half-giant is the result of a union between a human and a giant. Often they are of normal size or sl ...

Hagrid, as

Robbie Coltrane Anthony Robert McMillan (30 March 195014 October 2022), known professionally as Robbie Coltrane, was a Scottish actor. He gained worldwide recognition in the 2000s for playing Rubeus Hagrid in the ''Harry Potter'' film series. He was appointe ...

's body and stunt double (he also appeared in ''

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ''Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets'' is a fantasy novel written by British author J. K. Rowling. It is the second novel in the ''Harry Potter'' series. The plot follows Harry's second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry ...

'' as a young

Rubeus Hagrid Rubeus Hagrid () is a fictional character in the ''Harry Potter'' series of novels by J. K. Rowling. He was introduced in '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'' (2001) as a half-giant who is the gamekeeper and groundskeeper at the wi ...

). Continuing the acting theme, he also played a

cyclops In Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, the Cyclopes ( ; , ''Kýklōpes'', "Circle-eyes" or "Round-eyes"; singular Cyclops ; , ''Kýklōps'') are giant one-eyed creatures. Three groups of Cyclopes can be distinguished. In Hesiod's ''Th ...

Jonathan Liebesman Jonathan Liebesman (born 15 September 1976) is a South African film director and screenwriter. He is known for directing the films ''Darkness Falls (2003 film), Darkness Falls'' (2003), ''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning'' (2006), '' ...

's ''

Wrath of the Titans ''Wrath of the Titans'' is a 2012 action fantasy film and a sequel to the 2010 film '' Clash of the Titans''. The film stars Sam Worthington, Rosamund Pike, Bill Nighy, Édgar Ramírez, Toby Kebbell, Danny Huston, Ralph Fiennes, and Liam Ne ...

'', the sequel to the 2010 movie '' Clash of the Titans''. Bayfield also played "Rugby Player 1" in an episode of the

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

series ''

New Tricks ''New Tricks'' is a British television police procedural comedy drama, created by Nigel McCrery and Roy Mitchell, produced primarily by Wall to Wall (until its final year, when it was handled by Headstrong Pictures), and broadcast on BBC On ...

'' (first shown on 1 September 2008). In his broadcasting career, Bayfield has presented the NFL and ''

World's Strongest Man The World's Strongest Man is an international strongman competition held every year. Organized by American event management company IMG, a subsidiary of Endeavor, it is broadcast in the US during summers and in the UK around the end of Decemb ...

'' coverage on UK Channel Five and worked as a rugby correspondent on

BBC Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It broadcasts mainly news, sport, Talk show, discussion, interviews and phone-ins, and is on air 24 hours a day. It is the principal BBC radio station Broadca ...

. He also served as a presenter for ITV's coverage of the

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

and

2011 Rugby World Cup The 2011 Rugby World Cup, was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The World Rugby, International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japa ...

s, as well as presenting ITV's Guinness Premiership highlights. From 2012 to 2016, he co-presented BBC's ''

Crimewatch ''Crimewatch'' (formerly ''Crimewatch UK'') is a British television programme produced by the BBC, that reconstructs major unsolved crimes in order to gain information from the public which may assist in solving the case. The programme was or ...

'' with Kirsty Young. From 23 August 2018 Martin took part in ''Celebrity Masterchef'' of which he reached the final three shown on BBC one on 28 September 2018. In 2013, BT Sport acquired the exclusive rights to the Aviva Premiership. Bayfield (along with his ITV co-presenter Craig Doyle) moved to the new channel and he now works as a presenter,

pundit A pundit is a person who offers opinion in an authoritative manner on a particular subject area (typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport), usually through the mass media. The term pundit describes both women and men, altho ...

and pitchside reporter.

Personal life

Bayfield is married to his second wife Jane Goodman, and has three daughters with his first wife, Helena. Bayfield is an Honorary President of the

Wooden Spoon Society Wooden Spoon is the children’s charity of rugby. It supports children and young people with disabilities or living in disadvantage in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Since 1983, Wooden Spoon has committed more than £29 million to more than 1, ...

, the rugby charity that supports disadvantaged children and young people. Bayfield released ''A Very Tall Story'', a memoir of his rugby days, on 15 Sept. 2022.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

*
Sporting Heroesstatistics from scrum.comBayfs Blog
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bayfield, Martin 1966 births Living people British & Irish Lions rugby union players from England British police officers Metropolitan Police officers English rugby union players Northampton Saints players Bedford Blues players People educated at Bedford School Rugby union locks Rugby union players from Bedford England international rugby union players NFL announcers English rugby union commentators BT Sport presenters and reporters English people of German descent 1995 Rugby World Cup players Male actors from Bedford 20th-century English sportsmen