BOTH of Martin Bell's careers, as foreign affairs correspondent and more recently as politician, have been remarkably colourful.

He is appearing at The Riverfront Theatre, Newport, on Friday, April 22, at 7.30pm.

As one of the most distinguished foreign affairs reporters of his generation, Martin Bell was among those who defined the term 'war correspondent'. He later stole the show in the 1997 election campaign with his anti-sleaze victory over MP Neil Hamilton at tatton.

Martin Bell will be offering a fascinating evening of anecdotes and inside information on both his journalistic and parliamentary career. During his last assignment for the BBC he was badly wounded by shrapnel as he delivered a bulletin from Sarajevo and his 'lucky' white suite let him down for once.

What he saw while covering the war awoke a smouldering sense of injustice which was to define his future career and, with 24 days to go before the 1997 general election, he made the surprise announcement that he was leaving the BBC to enter politics.

His legendary fight for the safe Conservative seat on an independent, anti-corruption ticket made him a symbol of the revolt against perceived sleaze in the governing Conservative Party.

He won the seat with an 11,000 majority. Describing himself as an 'accidental MP' Martin Bell was persuaded to run again in the 2001 election, this time for Brentwood and Ongar in Essex - another constituency where the sitting Conservative MP, Eric Pickles, was at the centre of controversy.

He did not win the seat and immediately announced his retirement from politics saying: "I have won one seat and lost one - that's not a bad record for an amateur."

He now acts as an ambassador for UNICEF and as an outspoken critic of the state of journalism today.

He is married with two daughters and now describes himself as 'too old' for both journalism and politics.

Tickets cost £13.50 and £10 with reductions. Contact the box office on 01633 656757.