Very sad to read about Martin - my lookalike (seriously!). I always felt he was under-used on Sky News and wonder if he's been pushed. Shame they didn't get rid of Hurly Burley. I cannot understand why Miss Woodentop is still there after all these years.
Martin is one of the loveliest, most-effortlessly-smooth broadcasters I've ever met or worked with.
For the last 18 months, I've had the pleasure of producing a programme called "World News Review" each week, on which Martin has been by-far the most-frequent presenter. It's mostly distributed to Sky's international syndication partners, but has only rarely been seen on TV in overnight slots when the erstwhile Debate programme was off-air, or if for some reason we couldn't show the CBS Evening News.
But the programme's relative obscurity never mattered to Martin, who would come in during the 11:30 half-hour when Sky Sports takes over on a Saturday morning and just breeze through the links I'd written him (to go between the week's best VTs) with an easy and charming aplomb, and even when he made the (very) occasional fluff, he would always defer to me in terms of how to correct it, even though if he'd wanted to, he could've rewritten the entire script while standing on his head.
In short, he is a total pro... and I shall miss him enormously, as - I'm sure - will the audience who've enjoyed him as a regular presence in their news diet for as long as they've been watching Sky.
What a lovely post, Max. Fully concur with your comments.
I've long considered Martin Stanford an under-rated - and lately under-used - presenter. His name/face is one of the first to spring to mind when I think of "Sky News".
I'm not sure if his reduced role since the old Sky News Today was his choice or a decision by Sky, but I hope he'll continue to feature in the media somewhere.
What a massive shame that he's going. He always seemed to be a driver of innovation at the channel since Sky News Today MK1 with Julie and Martin, through to his Sky News with Martin Stanford interactive programme and Technofile.
Massively underused in recent years, and always very easy to watch. Hopefully he'll find something a little higher profile.
The old Sky News Today format with Martin and Julie has never been equalled as far as UK rolling news is concerned - it was pacy, lively and not at all dumbed down.
