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Martyn Hett: the boss's tribute

by Gareth Clements, co-founder and director of Rumpus PR
9 July 2024

Martyn Hett was taken from the world far too early, a star we were all blessed and fortunate to have shared some time with, and the memories he left with us are still shining bright today. I am happy to say those memories will continue to bring a smile for years to come. The Rumpus office was never a dull place when he was around. He had the ability to switch up the energy in an instant, in such a positive way, irrespective of the office mood.

Martyn loved to talk and inform the team of his weekend escapades and to extend the office chat to include stories of his general out-of-office life. He was ahead of his time when it came to personal brand and social media influence, he would eulogise about how many likes he had and how much he had earned from his You Tube channel.

We would often get a message overnight that he wanted to take a day off to travel to London to appear on TV. Most of all, his passion for all things Coronation Street had us all in stitches alongside the biggest love of his life: Mariah Carey. I remember that, one Christmas, we had a full set of Mariah Carey questions in our office quiz, so obscure none of us got one right answer. He was a creative genius, and his imagination knew no bounds.

Martyn was at Rumpus for over five years and he breezed through the interview process with a well-researched, perfectly executed writing test, but that was the quietest moment of his Rumpus career. My personal and fondest memory was when he, as always, walked into the office with such purpose and put three packets of premium biscuits on my desk and said, “what a wonderful day!” His love of life did not surprise me one bit, but the biscuits landing on my desk did. It was some six hours later that all was revealed. Martyn chose his moment well, we were all laughing with him as we did throughout the day and then the delivery, with a smile – “oh yesterday, I forgot to mention, when I was on that photo shoot, I left the tripod and kit on the train.” His timing was perfect!

It is great to see that his legacy will potentially live on through his mother Figen, who is campaigning for a change to the venue security law called Martyn’s law. She shares his passion for a cause, and I am sure he would be proud of the media attention she has created to effect change.

Martyn had it all covered in life; whatever he did he gave it his all, a passionate individual who wrung so much out of life. People often say that someone was one in a million, but one of the team went one step further and said that he was one in a million and if you were lucky enough to have known him, this phrase was aptly made for Martyn Hett.