Guy Martin

Presenter0:00

Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast from BBC Radio 4. Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury, that they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island. For rights reasons, the music's shorter than on the original broadcast, but you can find a version with longer music tracks on BBC Sounds. Listeners will also get access to episodes 28 days earlier than everyone else. I hope you enjoy listening.

Presenter0:47

My castaway this week is the T V presenter and former motorcycle racer Guy Martin. On the track, he achieved 17 podium finishes at the Isle of Man TT Races, one of the most prestigious and dangerous motorcycling events in the world. Along the way, he's survived numerous spectacular crashes. He's also set seven speed records, including Fastest on a Wall of Death, In a Soapbox and On a Tractor. On screen, he's the hugely popular host of programmes that bring together his fascination with engineering, history, and his daredevil nature. We've seen him build a replica army tank from scratch, train with the Royal Marines in the Arctic Circle, and learn the skills of trawlermen and firefighters. He's also the author of six hit books about his life and adventures. None of this, however, is his main occupation. He is, he insists, a mechanic first and foremost. He was born and brought up near Grimsby. He's been working with engines since he was 12 and he's never given up the day job despite his success. His next escapade comes second to a busy MOT season. He says, I like a bit of danger. I haven't got a death wish, but it makes things exciting, doesn't it? I guess I'd like to see how close I can come to death without actually dying. Guy Martin, welcome to Desert Island Discs.

Guy Martin2:05

Sounds half interesting, doesn't it? I've been quite busy. No, no, thanks very much for having us. Well, you've popped it in.

Presenter2:10

Well, you've packed it in. We've got a lot to talk about. Guy, you retired from racing quite a while ago now. Where do you get your hit of danger these days, day to day?

Guy Martin2:19

Where do I start? It's never stopped and I am looking forward to the day when I can get up in the morning and I'm just happy doing not a lot. But I can't see that day coming any time soon. So s just since the racing stops, yeah, be getting on for

Guy Martin2:39

Sort of at a professional, that was 10 years ago, that that all stopped. And then that's because I got bored, it wasn't.

Speaker 32:41

Yeah.

Guy Martin2:46

Interestingly, I was riding round the on these motorbike races.

Guy Martin2:51

Thinking, what am I going to have for my tea? What's happening at work? And I just thought, right, something needs to happen here if I'm not fully concentrating on what I'm doing.

Guy Martin2:59

I'm going to end up. You say you're going to end up with a wooden top. You know what I mean? End up in the bottom. End up with a coffin lid. Yeah, so anyway, I have found things since then.

Speaker 33:04

Yeah.

Speaker 33:05

Yeah, so

Guy Martin3:09

To grab me attention. Like what?

Guy Martin3:11

Oh my word, I've been building this motorbike for

Guy Martin3:14

I'm six years into this project. It's an on-brewed thing, and I'm trying to go fast, but really, the eventual goal is to do 300 miles an hour in a standing mile. And I'm six years into this.

Speaker 33:24

And I'm six years into this.

Guy Martin3:27

Yeah, but it's as much of a science experiment as it is

Guy Martin3:33

A hunt for adrenaline. Anyway.

Presenter3:35

What does it feel like to to go that fast, to be going up two hundred and eighty odd miles an hour?

Guy Martin3:41

I go to a speed event and I have a good run, everything goes well, I do 270, 280 miles an hour. I and I'm not I genuinely do not sleep for two days. There's just the rush is like nothing I have ever experienced before. No matter how extreme the road racing was, does not come up to the knees of mile racing. It is like nothing else.

Presenter4:05

And what about fear? I mean, you know, and it sounds like you were very calm in the eye of the storm when you're actually racing. Is that fair to say? Were you ever frightened?

Presenter4:16

Yeah.

Guy Martin4:16

Yeah, and I think that was the original

Guy Martin4:20

Buzz was the fear.

Guy Martin4:25

And when it's not scaring you, I think we have a problem. Because if you're not scared, then your mind starts to wander and that's when things can go wrong. So what I do now scares the living daylights out of me and that grabs my attention. So as it is, that's what I'm going to keep doing.

Presenter4:43

Um, you once described yourself as good at crashing, which I really liked.

Guy Martin4:48

I'm a fair hand, yeah. I'm a fair hand. I know, yeah, if it's going wrong, get away from the bike and relax, let it happen. And that, yeah, I've got away fairly lightly on the bottom.

Presenter4:58

What do you mean, relax? Like as you're mid-air, essentially, try not to tense up. Is that what you mean? That's just that, just that, just that.

Guy Martin5:04

I've been, yeah, you you the bike chucks you off and you can see the roofs of the vans in the pits. You think, oh.

Guy Martin5:12

This is going to hurt, but just let it happen. Don't fight against it. And then I've got away quite lucky over time, really. I've got lots of nuts and bolts and screws and plates in me, but I'm alright, really. I'm still here.

Presenter5:23

Alright, guys, time to get into your music today. I know you are a huge music fan. What's your first choice?

Guy Martin5:29

This is Alabama Three Bamalam.

Guy Martin5:33

Mate Michael Bill, right? Sponsoring is a bit. It's a legend of a bloke. It's a legend of a bloke. And always.

Speaker 35:37

Uh

Guy Martin5:41

A man for wise, calm words in awkward situations.

Presenter5:47

Oh, okay.

Guy Martin5:48

So if I've ever had something a bit tricky it always just without getting

Guy Martin5:53

Emotional about anything. Yeah, he's being a great man for wise words. And he got me to my first Alabama 3 gig. This song is massive standout because they came and they did a gig in Grimsby. Yeah, and it was two hours late coming on stage and the place was going wild. And yeah, this was just a standout song.

Speaker 36:17

The baby!

Speaker 36:19

Illegitimate baby, yeah Born a long time ago To my mama that they called back Betty

Speaker 16:26

Yeah.

Speaker 36:27

Yeah.

Speaker 16:27

Bamba Lap, no pain name me The devil tried to call me crazy Could you stood a chance standing in my shoes Working me from the start, sound working in the mind Bamba lab, most painful

Speaker 16:43

Going to check

Presenter6:43

Would you not be a

Presenter6:46

Alabama 3 featuring Aurora Dawn with Bam Balam Here Comes Daddy.

Presenter6:51

So Guy Martin, let's go back to the beginning for you, shall we? You were born in Grimsby, nineteen eighty one, and you grew up in the nearby village of Kirmington. You're the second of four. And I know that you credit your mum and dad, Rita and Ian, with teaching you your work ethic. How did they do it?

Guy Martin7:07

Well that's all we ever knew as kids. I've got an older sister, younger brother, younger sister, and that's all we ever knew, right? Didn't see that much of dad. It was great dad, but just work. Work, work, work. Get home from work at seven or eight o'clock. He'd fall asleep watching the news with his newspaper on him, eating his tea. And my mum was only the same. She brought the kids up and while we was all at school she would go out picking tates and then back home and make a tea and then when we was all at school and we'd all grown up a bit she went off and trained to become a nurse. You know what I mean? It was the big thing.

Speaker 37:20

Yeah.

Guy Martin7:46

No, she had an interesting upbringing. She had four brothers, um, a dad, Walter, Walter Kiddhols. He was Latvian, um, came over to England on the way to Canada after the Second World War. He was in I mean it sounds bad when I say he was in the Waffen SS.

Presenter7:57

Mm-hmm.

Guy Martin8:05

Um

Presenter8:05

He was conscripted, right?

Guy Martin8:06

Yeah, conscription. Any Latvian conscripts was automatically assumed as WAF and SS, and that's what he was. So, yeah, so after the.

Presenter8:07

And you la

Presenter8:12

Then that's

Guy Martin8:14

After the Second World War he was on his way to

Guy Martin8:17

Canada, I think, and then stopped in Hull on the way there, and then met Migran.

Guy Martin8:23

Lil. Yeah, and then that's where it all started from there.

Presenter8:26

So sh you said your mum had a quite an unusual upbringing, so quite kind of no nonsense, quite tough from what I've heard, what I've read?

Guy Martin8:33

Yeah, just I mean, there's this one she used to tell me when she was a kid, she

Guy Martin8:37

Pet rabbits, you know what I mean? Because Walter loved, he had sheep and a lot of pets, all for, as it turns out, for eating. My mum had a pet rabbit, and she gets home from school and says, I couldn't find my rabbit, where's my rabbit? Her dad said, You're eating it. And that's sort of. Okay. And that's sort of how she was brought up. And then we've all.

Guy Martin9:00

Yeah, she she's good person but like no emotion. This I s it sounds bad but no

Guy Martin9:07

hugs when we was kids, yeah. W I think in later life we've probably all struggled a bit.

Presenter9:13

Mm-hmm.

Guy Martin9:14

We're all a bit different.

Presenter9:15

That kind of physical kind of touch, and that didn't, you didn't learn the language of that as a little kid, you mean? No, yeah. No, we never did.

Guy Martin9:21

No. Yeah. No, we never did. Like now I've got a daughter and I think I try and learn from Bill Words, not

Guy Martin9:31

But then I look back like she was a she used to get a spaghetti measure and a wooden spoon and tanner back sides. You know what I mean? And that was great. That put discipline, and that's frowned upon now, isn't it? And I think.

Guy Martin9:40

Yeah, I th

Guy Martin9:42

But I don't want that for daughter I don't want that for my daughter. I just think maybe not stern words, just words should police her, not wooden spoons.

Presenter9:56

Yeah, so you're having the conversation instead of sh

Guy Martin9:58

Yeah, my daughter, she's eight year old, so she's not quite

Guy Martin10:02

Yeah, she's cheeky, she definitely takes after me.

Guy Martin10:05

I could get dead. You know what I it's yeah, because she was you know, I mean, my mums, she was a great mother, she was a great but but you're strict. Don't mess with her, don't mess with her.

Speaker 110:06

Yeah, the e

Guy Martin10:14

Uh

Presenter10:15

And what kind of dad are you then? How would you describe your parent and style?

Guy Martin10:18

I struggle. I struggle. It don't come naturally. I look at mates of mine with kids and they're loving, they're great, and I really have to try.

Guy Martin10:28

And I really like to kiss Dot and just to give her a cuddle, but it does not come natural to me. And I really have to try, and I do try. I really do try. Yeah, I just.

Presenter10:38

Yeah.

Presenter10:40

Let's have some more music, Guy Martin. Your second choice today. What have you gone for?

Guy Martin10:45

Testify Rage Against the Machine Because of

Guy Martin10:49

The last few lines in the song, right

Speaker 310:52

Uh

Guy Martin10:52

1984, George Orwell. I read that book twenty years ago, right? And I'm not I'm not a

Speaker 310:57

But I'm not.

Guy Martin10:59

Much of an academic type at all, really.

Guy Martin11:02

But I don't know why. I just got into reading deep books and I just

Guy Martin11:09

I spent a lot of time in tractors, spent a lot of time driving, and listening to Rage Against Machine, and just the words from the end of that song. I thought, hang on.

Guy Martin11:17

I know those words. He who controls the past controls the future. He who controls the present controls the past.

Guy Martin11:25

I thought, I've heard that before, and I know where I've heard that. I've read it in.

Guy Martin11:29

1984, yeah. They're they're just sort of simple words but yet so so meaningful.

Presenter12:09

Rage against the machine and testify. So Guy Martin, we've heard about your mum. Tell us a bit more about your dad, Ian. He was a motorbike racer himself when you were growing up.

Presenter12:19

What kind of competitions did he take part in?

Guy Martin12:19

What kind of game?

Guy Martin12:21

My dad, what a boy. Ian Martin, yeah. Um, yeah, he raced.

Guy Martin12:29

and we'd go and live out of a caravan for a weekend. He knew that there was compromises to family life when you race motorbikes. So that's why he never

Presenter12:39

So that's

Guy Martin12:42

encouraged me as a kid to go and race motorbikes.

Presenter12:45

Ah, he thought it would take too much away from the rest of your life.

Guy Martin12:48

Yeah, yeah, yeah, just once you get addicted to it, that's it. And then'cause he loved it and he'd go and race British Championship and then he'd go and do the he'd be away for two weeks and go and race the TT.

Presenter12:58

I don't know.

Guy Martin12:58

And then you're

Presenter13:00

Was he successful? He must have been quite successful. He was alright. Yeah, he was alright.

Guy Martin13:03

Yeah, he got on all right. Always uh the older he got, the faster he was.

Guy Martin13:09

Oh, I when he's looking back, you mean?

Presenter13:09

What is the

Presenter13:11

Yeah.

Guy Martin13:11

Yeah.

Guy Martin13:12

Yeah, the addiction.

Guy Martin13:15

of mower bikes.

Presenter13:16

And he was what was called a privateer, your dad. What's a privateer? Yeah, you just.

Guy Martin13:22

owned his own motor bike, put it in the back of his van and went and raced. Didn't ride for a team.

Guy Martin13:27

Just did his own thing, funded it himself. He had a few mates that helped him, few mates that would go with him. And that's all I grew up hearing the stories.

Presenter13:31

Yeah.

Presenter13:34

Yeah. So he worked as a mechanic, your dad, on lorries, you know, like you do. You went to work with him quite often when you were little, I think.

Guy Martin13:41

Yeah, that's a good idea.

Presenter13:42

What did you learn from him?

Guy Martin13:44

I've been doing it this way for forty years. That's the way it's done. But I learned some off my dad. I learned some off my dad. Just very meticulous in the way that he does things.

Guy Martin13:54

Very much stuck in his ways, but he was, yeah, I just as a kid, when he was building his motorbikes, he'd let me sit on his bench in the shed while he was building his motorbikes. I wasn't allowed to say anything, I could sit on the sh just watch him. Yeah, just, yeah, fascinated by how things work, what's going on. And then that sort of uh evolved to going to work with him.

Presenter14:15

Yeah.

Guy Martin14:15

Yeah.

Presenter14:17

So yeah, what were the first engines that that caught your eye when that started to happen? Because it was such an early interest for you.

Presenter14:24

I know I stayed younger, stayed.

Guy Martin14:26

Uh

Presenter14:27

Uh

Guy Martin14:27

My word, I'd been about seven-year-old, started building lawnmower engines. And then folks from around the village give me their old

Speaker 314:29

And the

Guy Martin14:33

Nacadlorma was to rebuild. I just fascinated by taking them to bits and getting them running. And then I I got into this obsession with trying to blow them up. I used to

Presenter14:43

Uh

Guy Martin14:43

So she couldn't figure out how to do it.

Presenter14:44

So if you couldn't fix it, you would blow it up, would you?

Guy Martin14:47

Oh, and I used to fix it, get it running, get it running, and then try and take bits out of the engine until I get it to blow up. Lightning bits and polishing bits, and just, oh, I love destruction. Just, yeah, oh, I just love blowing stuff up. Yeah, pushing stuff to the limit. That's where it all started from. So it started with X.

Presenter14:59

Yeah.

Presenter15:03

So it started with exploding lawnmowers, did it?

Presenter15:06

And what about you and your dad's relationship? You know, you talked about your mum and are your dad mum and dad both obviously very supportive.

Guy Martin15:12

I don't know if supportive would be

Guy Martin15:16

But just

Guy Martin15:17

It wouldn't be I'm always for doing the hardest, most impossible thing that I'm never going to achieve, but I love that. And like when I first went from racing club motorbikes to racing at the British Championship, he was like, he was like, why would you do that? You're never going to do it. Why would you do that? And I just, that's all I wanted to do.

Presenter15:34

Yeah.

Guy Martin15:35

Something that was outside of my comfort zone. Let's get stuck in and see how it goes.

Presenter15:39

Oh, right, and he's the man from, as you described, like routine. I've been doing it this way for 40 years. So, just different personalities. So did you clash?

Guy Martin15:47

Loads of times. Just an example.

Presenter15:50

So next up.

Guy Martin15:51

I'd have been working for him. I used to work school all days and Friday nights from being sort of twelve year old at his work, where he worked and then I when he s he set up his own business and then I went to work for him then. And I must have been a right smart mouth on me when I was a kid, right?

Guy Martin16:08

He I'd lost his adjustable spanner. He said, I've had that for thirty years, this adjustable spanner I said, Well, it's about time you got a new one then Ar anyway, I got a thick ear for that Rightly so rightly

Presenter16:16

Anyway, I got a sick ear for that. Rightly so. Rightly so.

Presenter16:21

So, guy, you got your first bike for Christmas, I think. What was it?

Guy Martin16:26

It was a I'd have been

Guy Martin16:30

Five years of age, my sister had a been seven, and we got a Yamaha Ty eighty straightway first time out on it, scratched it in the rose garden. Didn't pull me off, did it?

Guy Martin16:42

Honestly, straighten the rose cap.

Presenter16:43

That set the tone for a lot that was to come.

Guy Martin16:45

Mate, yeah, get used to it. It all starts here. A lot of crashing, mate. Lot of crashing.

Presenter16:50

Guy Martin, I think we should have some more music. It's your third choice today. Tell us what we're going to hear next and why you're taking it to your island.

Guy Martin16:57

Yeah, the streets. We've got other streets here now, haven't we?

Presenter16:59

This is club music to me. Have you ever been a big clubber?

Guy Martin17:03

Oh, I'm not. And I've been in sort of rock and roll situations.

Guy Martin17:08

Where going out and getting trolley, or maybe taking drugs, was sort of the normal thing, and I've never done that.

Guy Martin17:15

I think we went out one night on a filming job in Brixham.

Guy Martin17:19

I think that was the one that I had four pints that night, and that's the most rock and roll I've ever been. But I've I've never taken drugs.

Speaker 117:22

Alexander.

Guy Martin17:27

I've never.

Guy Martin17:28

Yeah, I'm I'm not a dr I'm not a drinker. I'm not I'm not teetop but I d I'm not a'cause I just can't be doing with a thick head in the morning.

Presenter17:34

So, what is this music? This is, I mean, the track you've gone for is really hedonistic. It's about that kind of lifestyle, isn't it? Well, I think.

Guy Martin17:41

For me, that song is so descriptive.

Guy Martin17:45

I never need to take drugs because I might as well have I might as well have been taken because of that's

Presenter17:51

You can just listen to this instead.

Guy Martin17:55

Tastes like airspray. All of those lines out of that song.

Guy Martin18:01

Yeah, I don't yeah, so I don't need to take drunks. I don't need to get drunk because that song does it all.

Speaker 318:05

He's look well speckly, bit green and blue Freeze's well cheap though, so I'll take three if I need to Right, I'm in a plan, I wish the bounces and go away Borrow water off this man, here goes nothing okay

Speaker 318:20

And I'm thinking

Presenter18:21

Light so blind in my eye.

Speaker 318:24

Oh that's proper rain, that tastes like hairspray And I'm thinking

Presenter18:28

Uh

Guy Martin18:28

Uh

Speaker 318:32

Then walking off into the night.

Presenter18:35

The streets and blinded by the lights. So Guy Martin, I want to hear about your school days. We've heard about you as a little lad, a daredevil from a very young age, looking for a buzz. Luckily you had a primary school that sounds like it could accommodate that,'cause it was quite unusual, the school that you went to, wasn't it?

Guy Martin18:54

Bur Akam, the headmaster.

Guy Martin18:57

Norma Akham is wife, she was

Guy Martin19:01

head of the infants and then Bert was head of the juniors and we was all in that was in two separate classes throughout the whole school, eighteen kids in the whole school.

Guy Martin19:11

Mad sports days. Slow bike and fast push bike races. Right. He used to have a putting green at the back of school. That was we used to go and keep the putting green for him. Mother grass.

Presenter19:23

Just

Guy Martin19:23

Uh

Presenter19:23

Is this at in school hours?

Guy Martin19:25

This was in school out, was ya?

Presenter19:27

So this is the curriculum. What else was on the curriculum?

Guy Martin19:28

What else was on?

Guy Martin19:31

I don't know how I'm going to put this. Ari was always an interesting topic for me, but I never just too many questions.

Guy Martin19:39

How does that work?

Guy Martin19:41

Eating the fire thing. Yeah, how does that work? I was just always asking questions, and I thought, well, how does that work?

Guy Martin19:46

Yeah, interesting curriculum, but great. Maybe not the best preparation.

Guy Martin19:54

to go to a a secondary school with four hundred kids in it.

Presenter19:57

What was that like, that adjustment for you?

Guy Martin20:00

More.

Guy Martin20:03

Having to be in the right gang to have to wear

Guy Martin20:10

The right trainers with the right jumper to be in that gang. And I was just to me, it was just, wow, my word, just how does this work? Right. It was just green. Yeah, it was just awkward. Bit of bullying, which you'd sort of expect. And what kind of bu

Presenter20:23

What kinda bullion?

Guy Martin20:24

Just fighting, punching, fighting, spitting, getting called names. And then I just there was a big line.

Guy Martin20:33

Soon as I learnt to throw a punch, oh and it was quite and I'm not a fight now, but if it has to happen, it happens, and I'll fight.

Guy Martin20:44

But he just changed.

Guy Martin20:46

people instantly in the way that they look at you.

Presenter20:50

Well how old did you get on academically at school?

Guy Martin20:53

I think I remember got four or five GCS easy enough to do.

Guy Martin20:59

And for some reason I thought, Oh, I'm gonna go into college and become an engineer. So, yeah, left school, started an engineering course at college. Yeah, that's what I'm gonna be. I'm gonna be an engineer. And I think I got one term in and thought this is not for me.

Presenter21:17

Why not? Why wasn't it?

Guy Martin21:20

All theory writing down. It just didn't. I'm a practical person.

Guy Martin21:27

I just stru I'd really str I really struggle, I really struggle. And I think I had that mindset about me then that look winch.

Guy Martin21:34

do something about it. So, yeah, ended up

Guy Martin21:37

Going to a truck dealer down the road, John Ebb, and then did my apprenticeship there. So how did that?

Presenter21:42

How did that go? Did you enjoy it?

Guy Martin21:43

I am amazing. What I loved is

Presenter21:45

What?

Guy Martin21:48

They gave me enough rope to hang myself so many times in fixing things. And I d I d I just loved it and I did it.

Presenter21:55

I heard, Guy, that you developed an incredible recall for vehicle registrations while you were there. Is that true?

Guy Martin22:01

That's always been the case, yeah. Transit vans.

Guy Martin22:06

Truck Regis M303GRH, first transit man I took to Spain, W173 JDO, me and my dad's new type second transit, yeah.

Presenter22:16

Now around this time guy you met a truck driver called Baz Kirk and I know that he inadvertently changed your life. What

Guy Martin22:22

Happened.

Guy Martin22:24

My mum would tell yer.

Guy Martin22:27

I went a boy and came back a man. And that was going Baz Kirk, he'd come into my dad's, he'd worked for a truck firm, he was one of the drivers, and he said, Oh, looking for someone to give me um a bit of a hand at the Manx Grand Prix, which is the amateur version of the T T.

Speaker 322:41

Okay.

Guy Martin22:42

He says how do you fancy it, and there's me, I'd have been.

Guy Martin22:45

Sixteen. Yeah, before I left school.

Guy Martin22:47

What do you call and Spanner for is it, they?

Guy Martin22:49

Manx Grand Prix

Guy Martin22:50

And there I went.

Guy Martin22:52

Went in that van.

Guy Martin22:54

A boy?

Presenter22:54

Then came back a man.

Guy Martin22:56

Yeah.

Presenter22:56

What happened in the interim? Tell me about it.

Guy Martin22:58

ten pints a Guinness most nights for

Guy Martin23:01

Yeah, and just working on motorbikes and just dealing with men. Dealing with men that race motorbikes.

Presenter23:08

Let's have some more music, Guy Martin. Your fourth choice today. What is it?

Guy Martin23:13

My mate Patty always liked

Guy Martin23:15

A few years older than me, oh, he's mad for his music. Oh, get a listen to this, get a listen to this.

Guy Martin23:21

I'll sob in his van. I'd a soap in his van.

Presenter23:22

One of the big speakers, this is.

Guy Martin23:26

Yeah, the band, the music.

Guy Martin23:29

'Cause at the time I've always listened to the the music, but at the times

Guy Martin23:34

of racing, doing dangerous things. There was just lines in this song that stood out to me and I thought, Oh yeah, that can sort of I can reason.

Guy Martin23:47

Doin' these things. What's it like up there?

Guy Martin23:51

Does the pain stop when you see the light? You know what I mean? Maybe I'm over-exaggerating these lines, but I can sort of justify. Oh, yeah, if I'm gonna yeah, the fair chance I might not come back. But does the pain stop when you see the light? But this song really just cause I could pick lines out of them, I just thought I could sort of justify what I was doing.

Speaker 324:12

Watch it like a man.

Speaker 324:16

Do you worry anymore? How do you feel?

Speaker 124:21

Look there.

Speaker 124:24

So much left to stay. If I tell you those right now, it would never be the same.

Guy Martin24:34

Wait.

Speaker 124:34

Do I am buying?

Presenter24:43

The Music and Getaway.

Presenter24:46

Guy Martin, your first race meeting was at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire. You were nineteen. Were you confident?

Guy Martin24:54

Oh no.

Presenter24:55

I got it.

Guy Martin24:57

a nineteen ninety seven Honda CBR six hundred. I'd only ever rode like me'd rode my dad's classic BSA and my AR fifty moped before then, you know what I mean? It wasn't that fast. It was fast for a moped, it was eighty mile an hour, but to get to go from that to a a C B R six hundred

Speaker 125:14

By the way

Guy Martin25:14

Really fast, you know, maybe a hundred and sixty miles an hour.

Speaker 125:14

Really fine.

Guy Martin25:17

Anyway, the first race didn't last long. I think I got about four corners in.

Guy Martin25:22

Took about four boys down and had a massive crash.

Presenter25:24

Oh gosh.

Guy Martin25:25

A massive crash, yeah. I got up but I'd absolutely destroyed the motorbike.

Presenter25:30

No.

Guy Martin25:30

It's your s you'd think

Guy Martin25:32

It would bring home to me, Guy, what are you doing?

Presenter25:35

Yeah.

Guy Martin25:36

But I just it was just an obsession that I

Presenter25:39

So you never thought about giving up?

Guy Martin25:42

Never thought about giving up.

Presenter25:44

And even the

Guy Martin25:44

And even though my mum and dad was like, Guy, I think this may be in for you. This ain't for you. I just I would do whatever. And that first year I ended up crashing fourteen times in that first year. I'll never forget that. I just kept crashing.

Presenter25:48

We didn't see you.

Speaker 125:49

Uh

Guy Martin25:57

'Cause I wasn't very good and I didn't know. But I wasn't scared. I wasn't scared. Just kept crashing.

Presenter26:04

I just loved it, obsessed. And by two thousand two um you had got your racing license, but you ended up having it suspended. Why?

Guy Martin26:15

At that point

Guy Martin26:17

I went did British Championship.

Guy Martin26:19

I got

Guy Martin26:20

Half alright, really. I was getting in the top ten. And the second year came, and I made a bit more preparation, and I've got a couple of podiums.

Guy Martin26:28

And then after one of the podiums, I ended up getting a penalty for running across a chicane, right? And the clerk of the course at the time

Guy Martin26:38

Called me in for a telling off and told me he was going to give me a 10-second penalty. He was going to take the podium off me because I'd ran across a chicane, which I had, and I hadn't read.

Guy Martin26:48

The rules that if you cut the circuit and you just gain time, then you would get a 10-second penalty. But actually, I've lost time, and I was really stubborn about this. I'd actually lost time.

Presenter26:58

So by going across the Chicane you'd actually like ended up further back than you would have been. So it wasn't like you were trying to get ahead of someone. It was just right, okay.

Guy Martin27:07

Exactly that. And I was dead.

Presenter27:08

Got that.

Guy Martin27:10

I was adamant. I had lost time, right? And the clerk of the course would not listen to me one bit.

Guy Martin27:17

I at the time I thought he was being smarmy, so.

Guy Martin27:20

Obviously my time at school, I want shy of a fight. So I slammed his laptop on his hands and told him, um

Guy Martin27:28

I told him what I thought of him.

Guy Martin27:29

So that got me banned from that championship. So I thought, oh, that dummer, I'm gonna go.

Guy Martin27:35

Race to Scarborough where my dad's

Guy Martin27:38

Career finished, I thought, right, I'm gonna go road racing. And I did all right. And then a bloke from an Irish magazine, there was a famous Irish magazine called Irish.

Guy Martin27:49

Road race in Ireland it was called and the

Guy Martin27:52

Editor was a bloke called Leslie Muir and he s he saw me race at Scarborough and he says, Oh right, he said there's a race going on in Ireland next weekend, you can come across and do that if you want.

Presenter28:00

If you want.

Guy Martin28:02

I thought, oh yeah, I'll have a go at that, huh?

Presenter28:03

So you're self-funding, you're building the bike yourself, you're fixing everything that needs to be fixed, and training, and everything else.

Guy Martin28:09

Rather than having to work jobs outside of my normal job to be able to earn money, I'd spend a lot of time in

Presenter28:14

Not

Speaker 128:15

Uh

Guy Martin28:16

Trucks driving on the docks we didn't need a licence for, just to be able to so I could work a night shift to earn enough money to pay the tyre bill for the forthcoming season. But Ireland was different. Went to Ireland, raced at Scarborough, earned a few quid, went to Ireland, right? Me

Guy Martin28:31

W173 JDO, Red Transit and Me

Guy Martin28:36

Me mate Jim Andrews and me brother Stew went in a van.

Guy Martin28:39

And went and raced in Ireland. We got there to with the pits and we just said to these lads, Where's the track? Like we're on this bit of road outside this field. Where's the track? and they'd look at you and say, You're on it.

Guy Martin28:52

That's like a goat track.

Guy Martin28:54

You're on it, and they was not joking.

Guy Martin28:58

Anyway, won a couple of races and come back with like fifteen hundred quid. I thought, Oh my word, this is the future I've seen the future. I've seen the future. Anyway, after then, this would have been fairly early on in the year. After then they said no, because of the

Guy Martin29:14

laptop incidents, maybe the month before, they said, we can't have that. We're going to take your racing license off you. So I didn't race anymore that year. But that gave me time to plan what I'm going to do for the year after. So

Presenter29:26

So you had it in your sights. I think we should have some more music on that note, Guy, Martin. What's it going to be next?

Guy Martin29:27

Yeah.

Guy Martin29:33

Yeah, This Is Me and My Monkey by Robbie Williams.

Guy Martin29:36

This was the Red Tranny again W17380, right?

Guy Martin29:40

Driving to Spain, me and Johnny, the lad I used to work with, my best mate, and Longy, another lad we used to work with.

Guy Martin29:49

Borrowed my dad's van, drove down to Spain with the motorbikes in the back for a bit of an adventure.

Guy Martin29:53

And we had one of those devices. It only had a tape player in the van, but we had one of those devices that you could put the tape in that had wires coming out of it that would actually play C D's. Oh, yeah, so you remember like.

Presenter29:54

Uh

Speaker 129:54

Uh

Presenter30:02

Oh yeah, so you remember like a fake tape where you would post the tape thing in and it had a wire coming out of it and you could plug it into a C D player. I do.

Guy Martin30:09

You've got it. We didn't have many C D's, but one of the C D's was Robbie Williams' Escapology. We flogged it to death. Yeah, and me and my monkey, we just thought, that's yeah, such an odd song.

Speaker 130:16

Yeah.

Speaker 130:19

Yeah.

Speaker 130:21

Watch me and my monkey

Speaker 130:25

Him with his dongareza roll

Guy Martin30:29

Smoking filthy tips reclining in the passengers seem to my supercharged jet black

Speaker 130:34

Uh Yeah.

Guy Martin30:35

Yeah.

Speaker 130:36

Uh

Guy Martin30:37

We have a

Guy Martin30:38

Soft out down

Guy Martin30:40

He liked the wind in his face. He said, son, you have a

Speaker 130:45

Been a Vegas I said no he said that's where we're gonna go you need a

Presenter30:50

Uh

Speaker 130:50

Change your pace.

Presenter30:53

Robbie Williams and Me and My Monkey.

Presenter30:56

Guy Martin, during your time racing in Ireland, you've admitted that you were taking too many risks. Why was that?

Guy Martin31:03

Lost a lot of mates, a lot of competitors, a lot of pain. And you you just learnt to

Guy Martin31:11

I don't even think you learn to deal with it, you just learn to ignore it.

Presenter31:15

Is that good for you, do you think? Pushing through? I mean, you know, when there are fatalities on the track, it's a a huge thing to.

Presenter31:23

Ignore.

Guy Martin31:26

That's what you did and it was

Guy Martin31:29

Short of the unwritten rule.

Guy Martin31:32

Remember that?

Speaker 131:33

But yeah.

Guy Martin31:33

Tommy Clucas got killed, he got killed, um, went to his funeral, right? And I thought, Oh my god, this isn't healthy, this, going to fellow racists' funerals, I best not do that again.

Presenter31:44

But

Guy Martin31:46

So that's the last.

Guy Martin31:48

Racist funeral that I went to, yeah.

Presenter31:48

Right.

Presenter31:49

Even even people you knew, even friends, wow.

Guy Martin31:52

Well, like my best mate in racing, Martin Finnegan, yeah, I was at his wedding.

Guy Martin31:56

Six months before he got killed. Yeah, didn't go to his funeral. I was my best mate in racing, didn't go to his funeral.'Cause you're just in it.

Guy Martin32:03

Don't question the madness.

Presenter32:05

Was there a point that you thought this is not healthy, this is not a healthy response to?

Presenter32:11

people that you know and care about dying doing the thing that you're doing.

Guy Martin32:17

No, it didn't, and I still don't.

Guy Martin32:19

Because no one is making anyone do anything.

Guy Martin32:26

We all know when

Guy Martin32:28

Man, the buzz, you cannot money cannot buy that.

Speaker 332:31

Uh

Guy Martin32:32

Uh

Presenter32:33

Mm.

Guy Martin32:33

And we all know the price to pay for that sometimes.

Guy Martin32:36

is not coming back.

Guy Martin32:40

does not do your head any favors, go into funerals. So they stopped that. They just carried on. And and to be honest that was the but that was the only way to deal with it.

Presenter32:47

But I

Presenter32:51

It's interesting though. I know that you have benefited from thinking about your attitude and the way that you thought around that time though. You got very into The Chimp Paradox by the psychiatrist Steve Peters and started to look at the way that you were thinking and the way that you were behaving. What did you learn? What did you take away from the book?

Guy Martin33:13

I do stupid things on impulse sometimes.

Guy Martin33:18

And it's it's made me understand why I do these things. The only way I could deal with doing these stupid things was this mad part of my brain.

Speaker 333:22

Uh

Guy Martin33:34

is ran by a monkey.

Guy Martin33:39

Call Brian.

Presenter33:40

So this is the essence of the chimp paradox, that we all have an inner chimp, and you know, you read the book and you're supposed to name yours, and you've named yours Brian. Brian.

Guy Martin33:48

I know what it looks like.

Presenter33:50

What does he look like?

Guy Martin33:52

Aww, you know the film Sexy Beast.

Presenter33:54

Yeah.

Guy Martin33:55

Ben Kingsley, sexy beast, right? But imagine Ben Kingsley.

Guy Martin34:00

As a chimp.

Guy Martin34:02

Right, that is my chimp. Right, and that's how he talks to me, pointing at me and telling me exactly how things are going to be done.

Presenter34:10

Bent Kingsley is scary in that film.

Guy Martin34:12

Yes, C is, right, and that's how Brian is. Do not mess with Brian. But now I I now know how to deal with Brian, and you have to put him in his box and I've I know exactly how to deal with Brian, and so does my wife, Sharon. She knows ah, that's not a guy, that's Brian.

Presenter34:28

Uh

Speaker 334:28

Yeah.

Presenter34:28

Uh

Speaker 334:28

Uh

Presenter34:28

Uh

Speaker 334:28

Over the

Guy Martin34:31

Right, so we know how to deal with him now.

Presenter34:34

How'd you put him in his box?

Guy Martin34:36

Go and sit on my push bike for a couple of weeks and pedal to Mexico, down the Continental Divide, or pedaling through Arizona to Utah, through the Grand Canyon. The only way to deal with the chimp is to sit on a push bike and suffer for a couple of weeks at a time. So this is the only way, and we're at this point now, really.

Guy Martin35:02

Sharon Saint

Guy Martin35:03

You need to get out on your bike. Like, I do bike, whether it's to work, but I'm on the bike.

Presenter35:05

Yeah.

Presenter35:07

But you need a big mission to do a proper big uh challenge.

Guy Martin35:09

You need to do that.

Guy Martin35:11

Miserable mission. Just go and sit and only push bike, go suffer for a couple of weeks, sleep in a ditch. It used to be every couple of years we had to do this just to keep Brian

Presenter35:17

Then you come to the ditch.

Guy Martin35:24

In check, what he saw turned out to be an annual occurrence over the past four years.

Guy Martin35:29

But it just that keeps everything

Guy Martin35:33

Sweet.

Presenter35:34

Guy Martin, let's go to the music. It's your sixth choice today. What's next?

Guy Martin35:38

Johnny Cash hurt.

Guy Martin35:41

Just for that reason really. Hurts. Oh, yeah.

Presenter35:47

How are you with pain? Physical pain. You seem to have an unusually high tolerance for it.

Guy Martin35:53

You could say it's a tolerance for or it's I enjoy it. Whether it's

Guy Martin35:59

getting over broken bones or

Guy Martin36:04

peddling for days at a time.

Presenter36:06

What feels good about it?

Presenter36:08

Yeah, I don't know.

Guy Martin36:09

No. To be honest I don't think I want to know. I don't want to know. I just puts the chimp in his box. The pain keeps him quiet. Because if Brian's not quiet and maybe not the best person to be around, he needs the pain, he needs to suffer.

Speaker 136:16

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 136:26

I hurt myself today.

Speaker 136:31

To see if I still feel

Speaker 136:37

I focus on the pain.

Speaker 136:42

The only thing that's real.

Speaker 136:47

The needle tears a hole

Speaker 136:53

The old familiar sting

Presenter36:57

Johnny Cash and Hurt. So, Guy Martin, in 2004 you made your debut at the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy event. You received the Newcomers Trophy that year. How did it feel?

Guy Martin37:10

I would have died for it. I loved it so much. I put so much effort in. Yeah, it was it was just an amazing experience. Just at the pinnacle of road racing, it was.

Presenter37:15

Yeah.

Presenter37:20

And does it ever rankle that you never managed to pick up the winner's trophy there?

Guy Martin37:26

I packed in racing ten year ago and I thought, right, give that a couple of years, I will regret not winning a T T. I should have put more effort in, I should have kept going, but not one bit of me regrets not winning a T T.

Presenter37:42

That's interesting.

Guy Martin37:43

N nothing nothing, nothing. It was great, but it made me realize it was all about the journey of getting the most out of the bike.

Guy Martin37:52

It wasn't about winning. But it took for me to stop real for me to realise it wasn't about the winning.

Presenter37:55

For me to realize

Presenter37:58

So, Guy Martin, in twenty fifteen you retired from race, and it was after a bad crash that you'd had at the Ulster Grand Prix. After so many others, why was that the crash that changed things for you?

Guy Martin38:11

Think did I break eight vertebrae, broke my hand, broke my ankle, punctured a lung, a lot of damage. I'm laid in hospital, having discovered my love for endurance mountain bike racing and thinking there's more to life than racing motor bikes, right?

Guy Martin38:30

If I wasn't fully committed to doing it, I shouldn't really be doing it because something like this would happen. And that crash didn't happen through lack of concentration. That crash happened.

Speaker 138:38

Uh

Presenter38:38

Yeah.

Speaker 138:38

That's it.

Guy Martin38:41

through trying to win, and I was leading at the time.

Guy Martin38:45

And you don't mind crashing if it's for a a win, but crashing through a lack of

Guy Martin38:54

Concentration. I'd have a job.

Guy Martin38:57

Living with that, or would it would that be what finished me off? So I thought, I can't deal with that really. I'll tell you what I'll do, I'm gonna pack in and I'm gonna go do these daft pushbike rides.

Presenter39:06

So you'd switched to a new you found a new obsession, something to grab your attention. But you'd also been making T V programmes for a few years by that point. You started in twenty eleven.

Presenter39:17

How do you feel about the job? How does presenting compare to all of these other kind of incredibly engrossing pastimes that we've been talking about?

Guy Martin39:27

I'm uh well, uh I'm not a a presenter because I can't talk to a camera. They've tried to get me to talk to a camera through mirrors because I can't talk to this

Presenter39:39

Oh, so the sh film you in a mirror will look like a

Guy Martin39:42

I talk to someone.

Presenter39:44

Yeah.

Presenter39:45

And then

Guy Martin39:45

And I talk to the the director, but they arrange the camera lens in such a way that it looks like I'm talking to the camera.

Presenter39:52

Because it was just too weird to talk down the lens, was it?

Guy Martin39:55

I can't do it. It's quite a s I can't do I just can't do it because there's nothing there. I just can't I've not I'm not I'm not a presenter, I can't do it. And they say, Oh, well that doesn't really work. So they could get me to talk to a camera but they said it didn't really work the same. So we just stuck to doing it.

Guy Martin40:09

The same way for the past 17 years. And do you enjoy it?

Guy Martin40:13

I I love it.

Guy Martin40:15

It's amazing, but it's the attention that it brings.

Presenter40:19

Is that difficult?

Guy Martin40:20

A struggle, yeah.

Presenter40:21

Hmm.

Guy Martin40:22

I struggle. I've always struggled.

Presenter40:24

What's difficult about it? People knowing who you are?

Presenter40:27

Approaching you talking to?

Guy Martin40:31

I'm just a bit of a loner in ways.

Guy Martin40:33

And

Guy Martin40:35

We'd just go out and just have anyone would just come and sit and talk to us and I can talk until the cows come on, but I just sometimes it's a bit

Guy Martin40:42

Intrusive I'm out for Sunday dinner.

Guy Martin40:45

And then someone has come and over to the oh yeah, I was w I'd say your programme's great and oh thanks very much, thanks very much, but it is just a bit much sometimes and I do really struggle with that.

Presenter40:56

Guy, it's time for disc number seven. What's next?

Guy Martin41:00

We couldn't.

Guy Martin41:02

Miss.

Guy Martin41:04

The Prodigy

Guy Martin41:06

As bigger fan as I am of the Prodigy, I only got to see him live for the first time a few weeks ago. We got me and Sharon got married recently. We've been together for years, but we got married recently, um and that was a wedding present. It was Prodigy tickets. We got some special tickets and we got backstage and I met yeah, I met Liam.

Guy Martin41:31

Yeah, and he was just quizzing me about some of my own stuff. I'm like, what do you know about me? And he knew about

Guy Martin41:35

Keith,'cause I ended up with a sort of Keith ended up with my bike and I ended up with his bike.

Presenter41:40

Oh right, okay. I didn't know he was into his bikes as well.

Guy Martin41:41

There's a long

Guy Martin41:44

My first

Presenter41:45

I'm not surprised, obvious.

Guy Martin41:46

He was as much into horses as he was into motorbikes. But my first ever motorbike race was Keys Flint's first ever motorbike race. No way. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, sort of legend. Yeah, so The Day is My Enemy is from the album The Day Is My Enemy.

Presenter41:50

Boom

Speaker 141:56

Uh

Presenter41:56

Your web

Speaker 341:56

Yeah.

Presenter41:57

Uh

Speaker 341:57

Yeah.

Speaker 141:57

I hear ya.

Speaker 342:23

The day is my enemy

Presenter42:34

The prodigy the day is my enemy.

Presenter42:37

So Guy Martin. In 2013 you found out that you're neurodivergent. What did it mean to you? How did you feel about the diagnosis?

Guy Martin42:46

I don't see it as a problem. I think whether it's the lads I work with or my wife, it just makes them understand a bit better. But I'd just say, if anything, gives me, I don't know if I say honesty to Retz. I'm just straight to the point. I'm black and white, and then it maybe upsets a few people, but it yeah, it I think it helps, it helps me, helps me deal with situations better, that I'm just straight to the point everyone knows where to stand. That it makes me and we're all different. We're all different, so I wouldn't.

Speaker 143:04

Uh

Speaker 143:06

I'm b

Speaker 143:09

Yeah.

Speaker 343:15

Hmm.

Guy Martin43:20

I think it's a benefit.

Presenter43:22

When are you happiest?

Guy Martin43:24

Maybe changed over time. I've grown up.

Guy Martin43:29

Go out, me, Shaza and Dot, just Sunday dinner. Just go out and have a Sunday, just go Sunday dinner somewhere. With your family. Yeah, with my family. I can imagine Sharon wouldn't expect me to say that. She'd say when you're in your shed. I don't think it is. I love just sitting and going a Sunday dinner somewhere. Always trying new places. Just sitting on a Sunday dinner and watch the world.

Presenter43:36

So I think

Presenter43:52

You look quite emotional.

Guy Martin43:53

Yeah.

Presenter43:53

Yeah.

Presenter43:53

Yeah.

Guy Martin43:54

Yeah.

Guy Martin43:56

Yeah, love, family. Just I'm happy. I'm happy. I'm not I'm happy. I don't need I'm just happy. I've got my wife, got me daw, got me dogs.

Presenter44:02

I'm not sure.

Guy Martin44:07

I'm happy, I'm happy.

Presenter44:09

Well, I'm very sorry to say we're going to be casting you away from all that,'cause we're sending you off to your desert island.

Presenter44:15

How will you get on on your own? You do love your time in the shed, so I think actually, like you said, you are a bit of a lone wolf. That that bit might be okay for you.

Guy Martin44:24

You know the saying, It'll sit and end, don't you?

Guy Martin44:28

Well that's what I'd be. I think I'd be alright for a fortnight.

Presenter44:29

Got it?

Guy Martin44:31

Then I'd just be looking.

Guy Martin44:34

and little Brian'll be screaming his head off inside my head.

Guy Martin44:38

Yeah.

Presenter44:38

There's land over there.

Guy Martin44:39

Okay.

Presenter44:39

Crooking.

Guy Martin44:40

I'd be like an ill sitting en.

Presenter44:43

What does it mean?

Guy Martin44:43

You know what that means, an ill sitting in.

Presenter44:45

No?

Guy Martin44:47

A hen that's ill-sitting, that's sat on her eggs, and she keeps sitting about and jiggling about, getting her eggs warm. It's an ill-sitting, an ill-sitting.

Presenter44:52

It's an ill sitting.

Presenter44:54

You know, this is a new one, but I'm a I'm a city girl, I'm like northern, but I'm, you know, I'm Sundland, I'm like, I'm a towny.

Guy Martin45:02

After all.

Guy Martin45:07

That's my that's definitely one of my mums, but it's not I've heard other people say, Oh, you're jiffling about like an ill-sitting egg.

Presenter45:12

Any of that you say it makes perfect sense, but I was just checking.

Guy Martin45:16

Anyway, yeah, I'd be like an ill city n.

Presenter45:19

All right, one more disc before we cast you away, Guy Martin. Your last choice. What is it to do?

Guy Martin45:26

My wife, she has a Sharon, um, she's Irish.

Guy Martin45:33

So we've we've got a bit of U2 in there, haven't we? She's from Ireland.

Guy Martin45:37

Um

Presenter45:37

Didn't you play this one at your wedding?

Guy Martin45:39

Yes, she's everything.

Guy Martin45:41

I bloody cry when you play F head, but I don't.

Presenter45:44

Oh yeah, you are getting emotional thinking about her.

Guy Martin45:44

Yeah.

Guy Martin45:46

Yeah. Uh yeah, she's Everett, she's mega. She's mega. She deals with me. She's brilliant. Yeah, with or without you, you two. Scott Winnie.

Presenter45:55

Plus

Guy Martin45:55

Pierre Charles.

Speaker 145:57

Sleight of hand and twist of face On a bed of nails she makes me wait

Presenter46:01

Yeah.

Speaker 146:06

And I wish we found you

Speaker 146:12

With or without you

Speaker 146:17

We fall without you

Speaker 146:23

Through the storm we reach the shore

Presenter46:28

You two, with or without you. So, Guy Martin, it's time to send you away to the island. I'm going to give you the books, the Bible, the complete works of Shakespeare, and one other book of your choice. What's it going to be?

Guy Martin46:40

Matt Oxley, stealing speed.

Guy Martin46:43

Motorbikes, that's what he does, write about motorbikes. But it's a story about Nazi V2 rocket technology being used for two-stroke motorbike exhaust technology. And this technology was all in East Germany at this point. It's an amazing story. It's an amazing story about a rider nicking the technology, getting it across the border, getting it in, and then, yeah, and then he just took off in motorbike racing from then on. And I just, yeah, I've read that book loads of times. It just, yeah, I still pick bits and I think that's what a story. Well, I'm not surprised you've.

Presenter47:16

What a story. Well, I'm not surprised you've chosen that. History, motorbikes, and engineering. I mean, it's all in there for you. A bit of adventures.

Guy Martin47:24

Smuggling stuff in the boots of cars, getting over Brandenburg Gate and all of that. Oh my word.

Presenter47:29

Heavens to Betsy, that's yours. You can also have a luxury item, what you fancy.

Guy Martin47:30

Mr. Betsy.

Guy Martin47:34

The I think we're at about one hundred and forty five magazines, race engine technologies. I think that's what number I I I bought the the h the first a hundred back catalogue of race engine technologies and it just blows my mind.

Presenter47:52

My

Presenter47:54

The entire back catalogue of race engine technology.

Guy Martin47:57

It's a bit left field.

Presenter47:59

It can't be too niche for me, guys. That is, I would like nothing better than to gift you the entire back catalogue for the island.

Guy Martin48:06

So we'll go with that, right? Okay, thank you very much. It's yours. It's a great read.

Presenter48:10

And finally, which track of the eight that you've shared with us today would you save from the waves first, if you had to?

Guy Martin48:19

I didn't realize.

Guy Martin48:21

I get that emotional when I start talking about Sharon.

Guy Martin48:27

So

Guy Martin48:28

Yeah, it's got to be you too, hasn't it? With or without you. I d I d honestly, I didn't think I would.

Presenter48:35

Yeah.

Guy Martin48:36

You know,

Guy Martin48:38

Hmm.

Presenter48:38

Uh

Guy Martin48:39

And our family we don't cry, we don't show emotion, but I've just done that, so yeah, it reminds me of

Guy Martin48:45

Sharon'em Doc.

Presenter48:47

Yeah.

Presenter48:48

Guy Martin, thank you so much for letting us hear your Desert Island discs.

Guy Martin48:52

Thank you so much. It's been an honour.

Presenter49:13

Hello, I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Guy. I am so grateful to him for gifting us the phrase like an ill-sitting hen. We've cast away many speed enthusiasts including motorcyclist Barry Sheen, racing driver Jackie Stewart, commentator Murray Walker and motorsport executive Toto Wolf over the years. Their episodes are available on BBC Sounds or via the Desert Island Disc's website. The studio manager for today's programme was Jackie Marjoram, the executive production coordinator was Susie Roylance, the content editor was Mugabe Turia and the producer was Paula McGinley. Next time my guest will be the glass designer Peter Layton. I hope you'll join us.

Speaker 150:03

Hello, it is Danny Robbins here for years now on Uncanny. We have explored real people's potentially paranormal experiences. But one thing that listeners have often asked me is why don't we look at supernatural cases from the past? Well, you asked and we listened. Our new series, Uncanny Cold Cases, takes a deep dive into some of these stories from the most haunted house in England to the original UFO abduction case. Can we make sense of these strange stories that have haunted history? Uncanny Cold Cases. Listen on BBC Sounds.