advisors

A graduate of the UK’s National Film and Television School, Martin has had more than 30 years experience in the film and TV industry principally as a screenwriter but also as director and producer.
His first screenplay to reach the screen was the acclaimed youth cult classic, Quadrophenia, (1977) with music by The Who. Subsequent writing credits include the benchmark British political thriller Defence of the Realm, (1984) produced by David Puttnam, starring Gabriel Byrne, Denholm Elliott and Greta Scacchi, and the urban drama, For Queen and Country (1989) starring Denzel Washington, which he also directed.
Together with his NFTVS colleague, Brian Ward, Martin co-wrote Tabloid (2002) a pungent satire about celebrity, starring John Hurt and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and wrote the original screenplay for The Interpreter (2005) starring Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn, directed by Sidney Pollack.
After studying Drama and English at Bristol University in the early 70s, Martin joined the John Peel-sponsored multi-media rock group, Principal Edwards Magic Theatre. He left the music scene to write features for International Times, Ink and Time Out on subject matter ranging from the Rock business to the American Indian Movement.
In 1975 Martin joined Common Stock Theatre Company (founded by breakaway teaching staff from LAMDA) and wrote several plays for the company as writer-in-residence. Simultaneously he worked as a teacher and community organizer in Deptford, a deprived dockland area of South London where his experiences inspired his screenplay for the cult Reggae classic, Babylon (1980), with music by Aswad and Dennis Bovell, which he also co-produced.
During the 1990s, Martin developed several larger budget films with Working Title (see The Interpreter) and worked in Hollywood on several writer-director projects which eventually foundered in “development hell” but returned to UK to direct the BBC TV series Harry (1993) for Franc Roddam and write the children’s series Shoebox Zoo (2004) also for the BBC.
As co-series creator with Brian Ward, Martin is currently developing two television series, King of Diamonds for Daybreak Pictures and Ingenious as well as The Promised Land with Look Out Point. He has recently completed The Greater Good, a new political thriller and Quadrophenia II, which re-establishes his close professional relationship with The Who begun several decades earlier.