Nine things we learned from Guy Martin's Desert Island Discs
Motorbike racer, engineer, daredevil, TV presenter… Guy Martin’s life has always been full of adventure. But his interview with Lauren Laverne shows Guy’s more reflective side as he talks about life with his wife, daughter and dogs, and the joy of a Sunday dinner.
He also recalls some of his most hair-raising moments, including crashing motorbikes at 200 miles an hour. Above all, Guy’s Desert Island Discs is a big lesson in don't try this at home.
Here are nine things we learned…
1. It all started with blowing up lawnmowers
Before the motorbike racing, before the TV programmes, before the wall-of-death world record, there were the lawnmowers. At seven years old, Guy was collecting broken ones from neighbours and seeing how far he could push them before they gave out. “I used to fix it, get it running, and then try and take bits out of the engine until I got it to blow up”, he laughs. “I love destruction. Pushing stuff to the limit. That's where it all started from.”
2. His dad raced bikes too, but didn’t want Guy to follow in his footsteps
Growing up in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, Guy watched his dad Ian build and fix motorbikes in the shed. “When he was building his motorbikes, he'd let me sit on his bench in the shed. I wasn't allowed to say anything. I could sit and just watch him.” Ian also raced in Isle of Man TT events as a privateer – someone who owns their own bike and funds their own races – but he discouraged Guy from following suit. “He knew that there were compromises to family life when you race motorbikes. So that's why he never encouraged me as a kid to go and race. Once you get addicted to it, that's it.”
3. College couldn't teach him what a local truck dealer could
Guy left school with a few GCSEs and enrolled on an engineering course at college, convinced that was his future. “I think I got one term in and thought, ‘this is not for me,’” he says. The problem for him was that it was “all theory, writing down… I’m a practical person. I really struggled.” He ended up at a truck dealer down the road and did his apprenticeship there instead. “I just loved it.”
4. His first motorbike race was a disaster…
I got about four corners in, took about four boys down and had a massive crash... I wasn't very good, but I wasn't scared. I just loved it.Guy reflects on his first motorbike race.
Guy’s debut race at Cadwell Park at the age of 19 did not last very long. “I got about four corners in, took about four boys down and had a massive crash. I'd only ever ridden my dad's classic BSA and my AR50 moped. It was fast for a moped, it was 80 miles an hour, but to go from that to a 1997 Honda CBR 600, they're really fast, maybe 160 miles an hour.”
The motorbike was finished, but Guy’s obsession with racing had only just begun. “You'd think it would bring it home to me: ‘Guy, what are you doing?’ But it was just an obsession. I never thought about giving up.” That first year, Guy crashed 14 times. “I wasn't very good, but I wasn't scared. I just loved it.
5. He accepts the risks that come with racing
Road racing at the level Guy competed at carries a tragic human cost. Guy reflects on his response following the funeral of a close racer friend, “I thought, oh my God, this isn't healthy, going to fellow racers’ funerals. I best not do that again.” Did he ever think it was an unhealthy response? “No, I didn't. And I still don't. The buzz – money cannot buy that. And we all know the price to pay for that sometimes is not coming back.”
6. He retired from racing because he got bored – and boredom can be fatal
When Guy’s attention started to drift during races, that’s when he knew it was time to pack it in. “I was riding round on these motorbike races thinking, ‘What am I going to have for my tea? What's happening at work?’ 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.”
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.Guy explains how boredom led him to retire from racing.
Following a crash at the Ulster Grand Prix in 2015 Guy broke eight vertebrae, his hand, his ankle and punctured a lung. As he lay in hospital, he thought: “There’s more to life than racing motorbikes, right? If I wasn't fully committed to doing it, I shouldn't really be doing it because something like this would happen.”
It was a mindset: “You don't mind crashing if it's for a win, but crashing through a lack of concentration, I’d have a job living with that.” That’s when he knew it was time for something new.
7. He blames an imaginary chimp called Brian for his need for speed
Guy credits the psychiatrist Steve Peters's book The Chimp Paradox with helping him understand the impulsive part of his brain. The book introduces the concept of the ‘Chimp’ as the emotional, impulsive part of our brain, contrasted with the ‘Human’ part, which is rational and logical. Professor Peters believes harnessing the chimp helps to improve performance and achieve success and happiness.
Guy has named his inner chimp Brian and says he looks like Ben Kingsley from the film Sexy Beast. “That’s how (Brian) talks to me, pointing at me and telling me exactly how things are going to be done… Do not mess with Brian.”
Quieting this inner chimp involves long, miserable, multi-week rides on a pedal bike. “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.” His wife Sharon has learned to read the signs. “She knows that's not Guy, that's Brian.”
8. Being a TV presenter does not come naturally to him
Despite being the face of many popular TV programmes since 2011, Guy is adamant he is not a natural presenter. “I can't talk to a camera,” he says. “I just can’t do it because there’s nothing there.” At one point, the crew tried fixing up a system with a mirror, so that it would look like he was addressing the camera. In the end, they gave up and now Guy just talks to the director. “We just stuck to doing it the same way for the past 17 years.”
9. Talking about his wife makes him unexpectedly emotional
Guy married his partner Sharon in 2025, and dedicates his final disc choice, U2’s With or Without You, to her. “She’s everything,” he tells Lauren. “She deals with me. She’s brilliant.” As he recalls playing the song at their wedding, he starts to well up. “I didn't realise I’d get that emotional when I started talking about Sharon,” he explains. “Our family, we don't cry, we don't show emotion. But I’ve just done that.”
Asked when he’s happiest, he replies: “Going out with Shazza and [his daughter] Dot for Sunday dinner. 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 to sit and have Sunday dinner and watch the world.”
