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Martin Barry Kelner is a British journalist, author, comedian, singer, actor and TV presenter, whose primary career is in radio presenting. He has spent over 40 years hosting radio shows, mostly for the BBC, in particular Radio Leeds. He has been regularly accompanied throughout his career by comedy sidekick Edouard Lapaglie.


Education and early career

Kelner studied Arts and Social Studies at Strathclyde University in Glasgow, but dropped out. He was employed as a reporter on the '' Western Daily Press'' in
Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...
and for the ''
Oxford Mail ''Oxford Mail'' is a daily tabloid newspaper in Oxford, England, owned by Newsquest. It is published six days a week. It is a sister paper to the weekly tabloid ''The Oxford Times''. History The ''Oxford Mail'' was founded in 1928 by MP Fra ...
''. He then joined the Central Office of Information, for whom he worked in Bristol,
Lambeth Lambeth () is a district in South London, England, which today also gives its name to the (much larger) London Borough of Lambeth. Lambeth itself was an ancient parish in the county of Surrey. It is situated 1 mile (1.6 km) south of Charin ...
,
South London South London is the southern part of Greater London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the Districts of England, boroughs, in whole or in part, of London Borough of Bexley, Bexley, London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, Lon ...
and in
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
. Martin Kelner moved to Radio Hallam in
Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...
to begin his career in radio. He started reading the breakfast show news before moving on to his own late night show. He spent a brief spell at London's LBC and
Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
's Piccadilly Radio, before moving to
Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...
in 1981 and the fledgling Radio Aire. He left Radio Aire in late 1982, and worked for Yorkshire TV for a time on a programme called '' Calendar It's The Weekend''. He was also a co-presenter on '' BBC Breakfast''. Other television excursions for Kelner include ''Brainwave'', a daytime
quiz A quiz is a form of mind sport in which people attempt to answer questions correctly on one or several topics. Quizzes can be used as a brief Educational assessment, assessment in education and similar fields to measure growth in knowledge, abil ...
show and ''Pick of the Week''.


Radio

In 1984 Kelner joined 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 ...
. He initially presented the weekday early show on BBC Radio 2 in September and October 1984, and then presented his own Saturday night show on the same station from 6 July 1985 until 24 March 1990, also returning to the early show for two stints during 1985. He fronted his own Saturday afternoon show on Radio 2 from 1 October 1994 to 23 March 1996. He also did many stand-ins for regular presenters on the network, peaking in the mid-1990s when he regularly deputised for Sarah Kennedy on the weekday early show (both when she sat in for Terry Wogan and when she was on holiday herself) and also sat in for Ken Bruce and John Dunn. He also presented editions of the ''Radio 2 Arts Programme'' from the north of England, and a programme called ''Let It Be... Please!'' featuring bad or embarrassing cover versions of
the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...
' songs. He then fell out of favour at the national station, presenting his last Radio 2 show sitting in for Sarah Kennedy on 29 November 1996. At the same time as he was on Radio 2, he was also presenting a local radio late-night show from the Radio Leeds studios and broadcast across the BBC Night Network in the
north North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...
, on which he first gave airtime to radio comedy sketches from Caroline Aherne. She portrayed the Mrs Merton character on his radio show ad-libbing conversations with Kelner for around eight years. He also introduced Aherne into network broadcasting on Radio 2 and the original BBC Radio 5, where he presented the programme ''Five Aside'' for the station's opening months in 1990. He returned to Manchester to present the breakfast show on 100.4 Jazz FM, where he introduced another great comic talent to the public in the shape of Jake Yapp's Dora Dale, with whom Martin produced the hit BBC Radio 7 comedy show, ''Pleased To Meet You''. This show was nominated for a Sony National Radio Award on 28 March 2007 in the category of Best Comedy Programme. Until October 2006, Kelner presented the Friday and Saturday late show at the weekends on BBC Radio Humberside, BBC Radio York, BBC Radio Leeds and BBC Radio Sheffield. Other stations he has worked for include BBC Thames Valley FM, BBC Radio Cleveland, Pennine Radio, BBC Radio 5 Live, TalkSport, BBC Radio Manchester, Real Radio Yorkshire and Mansfield 103.2 FM. From 2006 until 2021 he presented his own podcast, the ''Piss Poor Podcast'', accompanied for the most part by Edouard Lapaglie. He also appears on BBC Radio 5 Live as a regular panellist on '' Fighting Talk'' (twice finishing as series runner up and twice winning the series championship, in 2013 and 2019), and has contributed to Chart The Week on Richard Bacon's programme. His most regular radio slot had been the BBC Radio Leeds ''Breakfast Show'' which he co-presented Monday to Thursday from 6:30am to 9:00am, but he was moved to the lunchtime slot in November 2012. Due to a change in direction of the station, Kelner left Radio Leeds again, presenting his last show on 18 March 2016. On 2 February 2018, Kelner joined the DAB station TalkRadio, hosting weekend mornings from 1am to 5am.


Writing and journalism

Kelner's journalism includes a weekly column for ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'', "Screen Break", which took a lighthearted look at the world of sport on TV, and a fortnightly column about radio. "Screen Break" finished on 31 December 2012. He writes occasional travel pieces for '' The Mail on Sunday'', and has written for ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'', of which his brother Simon Kelner was executive editor. Kelner began writing for the ''
Racing Post ''Racing Post'' is a British daily horse racing, greyhound racing, and sports betting publisher published in print and digital formats. It is printed in tabloid format from Monday to Sunday. , it has an average daily circulation of 60,629 ...
'' at the beginning of 2013. Other publications he has written for include '' GQ'', ''
Men's Health ''Men's Health'' (''MH''), published by Hearst Communications, Hearst, is the world's largest men's magazine brand, with 35 editions in 59 countries; it is the bestselling men's magazine on American newsstands. Started as a men's health magazin ...
'', ''Later'' (now defunct), RCME, ''
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...
'', Land Rover Owner magazine, ''You'' magazine, and ''Public Servant'', the local and national government journal. He also has contributed to the
YouGov YouGov plc is a international Internet-based market research and data analytics firm headquartered in the UK with operations in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific. History 2000–2010 Stephan Shakespeare and Nadhim ...
website, and wrote television previews for the ''
Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...
'' around 1994/95. He has posted humorous product reviews on Amazon. His first book, about the outer suburbs of show business, was called ''When Will I Be Famous?''. His second book, ''Sit Down and Cheer'', looked at the history of sport on British television.


Personal life

Kelner's daughter, Martha, is a journalist.


Health problems

in the summer of 2013, Kelner was diagnosed with fibromatosis; he later had surgery to remove a
sarcoma A sarcoma is a rare type of cancer that arises from cells of mesenchymal origin. Originating from mesenchymal cells means that sarcomas are cancers of connective tissues such as bone, cartilage, muscle, fat, or vascular tissues. Sarcom ...
from his abdomen and was cared for at St James Hospital,
Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...
. He was later treated at the hospital's intensive treatment unit for a week, and returned to his home in Wakefield for further recovery. In his blog, Kelner noted that it would be early 2014 until he could fully "return to professional life". He resumed his column in '' The Racing Post'' (at first on a semi-regular basis) and BBC Radio 5 Live later announced his return to ''Fighting Talk'' on 2 November. By mid-January he had resumed his lunchtime programme on BBC Radio Leeds.


References


External links

*
Martin Kelner's personal website including latest and archived podcasts

Guardian Sports Columnists Index – select Martin Kelner


{{DEFAULTSORT:Kelner, Martin Living people British radio comedy British radio DJs British radio personalities English radio presenters The Guardian journalists BBC Radio 2 presenters People from Swinton, Greater Manchester Alumni of the University of Strathclyde Actors from Prestwich Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century English male actors 21st-century English male actors Male actors from Lancashire English male comedians Comedians from Lancashire Actors from the City of Salford