Martin Kelner

Martin Kelner
Martin Kelner at Radio Aire in 1982
Birth name	Martin Barry Kelner
Born	1949 (age 63–64) Swinton, England
Show	BBC Radio Leeds Breakfast
Station(s)	BBC Radio Leeds
Time slot	12:00-15:00 Monday to Friday
Country	United Kingdom
Website	http://www.martinkelner.com

Martin B. Kelner is a British journalist, author, comedian and radio presenter. Throughout his radio career, Martin has been regularly accompanied by his "Frenchman" comedy sidekick, Edouard Lapaglie (the alter ego of Tony Quinn).

Early career, radio and TV broadcasting

Kelner studied Arts and Social Studies at Strathclyde University in Glasgow, but dropped out, and he was employed as a reporter on the Western Daily Press in Bristol and for the Oxford Mail. He then joined the Central Office of Information, for whom he worked in Bristol, Lambeth, South London, and in Birmingham.

Martin Kelner moved to Radio Hallam in Sheffield to begin his career in radio. He started reading the breakfast show news before moving on to his own late night show. There was a brief spell at London's LBC and Manchester's Piccadilly Radio, before Kelner moved to Leeds 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 a TV show called Living It Up. Other television excursions for Kelner include Brainwave, a daytime quiz show and Pick Of The Week.

Kelner appeared on BBC One's Celebrity Mastermind in January 2013. Despite being an avid Arsenal FC fan Kelner came fourth answering only 13 out of 20 questions correctly.

BBC radio

Around 1986, Kelner joined the BBC, presenting his own Saturday night show on BBC Radio 2, various stand-ins across the network, and later his own Saturday afternoon show on Radio Two from 1994 to 1996. Around the same time he was presenting a local radio late night show broadcast from the Radio Leeds studios and broadcast across the BBC Night Network in the north, 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 Two and the original BBC Radio Five.

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 BBC7 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 Five Live, Talksport, BBC7, and BBC Radio Manchester and Mansfield 103.2.

Between 2009 and 2010, he presented his own podcast, the Piss Poor Podcast, accompanied 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 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-presents Mondays to Thursday from 6:30am to 9:00am, but was reassigned to the lunchtime slot in November 2012.

Writing and journalism

Kelner's journalism includes a weekly column for The Guardian, Screen Break, taking a lighthearted look at the world of sport on TV, and a fortnightly column about radio. Screen Break finished on 31 December 2012; in his last column, Kelner provoked controversy on Twitter by describing Danny Baker as a "Self-regarding arsehole". He writes occasional travel pieces for The Mail on Sunday, and has written for The Independent, of which his brother Simon Kelner was executive editor. Kelner began writing for The Racing Post at the beginning of 2013.

Other publications he has written for include GQ, Men's Health, Later (now defunct), RCME, The Observer, Landrover Owner magazine, You magazine, and Public Servant, the local and national government journal. He also has contributed to the YouGov website.

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.

Kelner was also responsible for a 1992 local publication in Leeds called The International Pest. A query posted to Kelner's website regarding the provenance of the magazine revealed that it was published in partnership with Anthony Quinn aka Edouard LaPaglie from his radio shows.

Following the recent scandal at BBC Yorkshire involving Christa Ackroyd's reported £225,000 salary, Kelner has been approached to fill in before the presenting team is re-branded. Kelner has been rumoured to be interested in making a return to television following his recent departure from the Breakfast programme at BBC Radio Leeds.

External links

• Martin Kelner's personal website including latest and archived Podcasts.
• Guardian Sports Columnists Index - Select Martin Kelner
• An overview of Kelner's radio career