Martin Popplewell

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Martin Popplewell is a British newsreader who currently works freelance for Sky News presenting the weekend evening schedule alongside Lucy Alexander. He presents Live at Five, Sky News from 6:00pm to 10:00pm, Sky News at Ten, and Sky News Tonight. He also regularly covers in the absence of other presenters.

Popplewell started his career as a journalist on the BBC’s news trainee scheme. His break into TV came when he was just 15 years old he saw the film “The Blue Lagoon” and decided he too wanted to live as a castaway on a completely uninhabited Pacific Island with just one woman for company. He returned to his teenage desert island to make a documentary “The Real Castaway”. The programme was transmitted on Boxing Day 2001 and won wide critical acclaim - being described by “The Sunday Times” as one of the must watch programmes over Christmas.

Popplewell has presented the news on Five, BBC News 24 and Sky News. He also fronted the lifestyle magazine show "Five News at Breakfast". The programme was a mix of showbiz news, lifestyle features and movie reviews. He’s reported for ITN and worked as a political reporter for the BBC’s “On The Record”.

Before joining the BBC, Popplewell was a researcher for Alan Duncan MP at the House of Commons. He also worked for Congressman Richard Gephardt in Washington D.C. and as a volunteer on President Bill Clinton’s election campaign.

Popplewell is an experienced scuba diver and has written travel features on the subject for "The Times". He has a degree in zoology from University College London. ^[1]

Openly gay Popplewell has helped a lesbian couple, lawyer Sarah Brooke and dentist Lucy Nichols, each conceive a child by acting as a sperm donor. The results have been a son and a daughter, Dillon and Anna, born five months apart in 2006. ^[2]

Martin has recently been heard covering various shows on LBC 97.3.