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Homes Under the Hammer’s Martin Roberts reveals ITV has snapped up his pub docuseries and will air it in the new year
Martin was told to slow down after coming close to dying in 2022
MARTIN Roberts has revealed ITV will broadcast his new pub renovation docuseries in the new year.
Far from slowing down after coming within hours of dying from heart failure in 2022, Homes Under the Hammer star Martin, 61, threw himself into a huge project.
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The labour of love saw him buy the historic Hendrewen Hotel and pub in the Rhondda Valley and set about turning it into a living, breathing focal point of the local community.
That dream has been a costly, stressful undertaking with many setbacks along the way, but Martin wouldn't change a thing and he can't wait to share the journey with viewers in 2025.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun on behalf of , he said: "We've just heard from ITV that they are going to run it as a documentary series.
"So in the New Year, hopefully, Martin's pub rescue, brackets, Oops, I bought a pub! will be on your screens.
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"We've been filming it all for the last three years, and it's a roller coaster, and it's an emotional, wonderful story."
For two decades Martin has scouted out thousands of dilapidated buildings on his BBC property show and is well versed in the pitfalls that developers - both professional and amateur - face.
However, that didn't stop him from making a series of mistakes along the way and ignoring a number of alarm bells, too.
He continued: "Oh my golly gosh, I've broken every single one of my rules!
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"I went with my heart, mate, I made the classic error of going, 'it's a little pub, it closed at the start of lockdown, and the village has lost its heart, and it needs me', and so I've been driven by the community, and I've been driven by my heart.
"At the same time, my head is going, 'what the absolute bleep have you done here?' Every single wall is cock-eyed, every single window is falling down, there is a mountain at the back, which inches its way every day towards your pub, there is a waterfall at the back, which isn't supposed to be a waterfall, that waterfall continues into the cellar."
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Add to that the small matter of bats nesting in the leaking roof and you've got a daunting proposition, to say the least.
Martin said: "It has proved to be a massive challenge beyond all belief, however, it's the biggest and most amazing project of my life that I'm most proud of."
True to it being a community project, Martin drafted in the help of disengaged local teen lads to give them a purpose and help them towards construction qualifications.
And as the pub begins operating, he is hoping to create a myriad of opportunities for youngsters.
He said: "They've been told by the schools that they're rubbish, they come in, we give them a paintbrush, or a trowel, or whatever it might be, and we say, 'there's a wall, you've got to work on this'.
"We teach them, and they walk away, heads held high, you know, a belief in themselves returned, and they walk away with an industry qualification that's recognised.
"Then as it moves forward, we're going to have kids involved with the running of it, we're going to put in a teaching kitchen, we're going to do like a celebrity, come along and teach the local kids there.
"The strap line for it is... it's not will it burn through all my money, the strap line is, will it help kids, and I'm really proud."
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When Martin recovered from his pericardiocentesis, a life-saving operation to drain fluid from the sack surrounding his heart, doctors told him to choose the easy life going forward and avoid unnecessary stress.
But he had other ideas and views the near-death experience as more of a wake-up call that has encouraged him to seize life and do something meaningful while he has the opportunity.
"I hope you're never in a situation where you are within a close call of dying," he said. "But if it happens, it does shift your paradigm on life, because you realise you could die tomorrow.
"I mean we will all die eventually, this is true, but you don't really think it's going to happen too soon, and so suddenly, in that moment you think of all the things that I want to do, that I haven't achieved yet, how f**king frustrating is that?
"So, rather than me doing what I have been told to do, which is sit in a chair, take it easy, not get stressed, look after my heart, all that kind of stuff, I'm like, I've got to get on with this s**t, because I do not know how long I've got to go, and it could all end tomorrow.
"It almost did. I was three hours away from death, so I am even more driven to do things, not to make me money, because it's certainly not doing that, but to do some good, and to do a community thing, and just to change lives, because that's what you'll be remembered for, not from having a million pounds in the bank."
Martin is already looking ahead to series two of Oops, I bought a pub!, which would document its day to day operations.
But before that is the small matter of the grand opening, for which Martin has drafted in the acclaimed Treorchy Male Choir and a big name local female celebrity.
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He said: "I am absolutely supersizing it for the opening, the Valleys will have never seen anything like it."
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