Mark Steel
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Mark Steel is a British socialist columnist and comedian. He has been a member of the Socialist Workers Party since his late teens.
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Early life
Steel was a typical disaffected teenager growing up in the Swanley, Kent, UK in the late 1970s. His anger and frustration at societies injustices were vented by political protests, punk music and poetry.
He was expelled from school, and went onto work in a garage and then live in a squat. From here he went on to make his first public performance as a poet.
Career
Steel found an outlet for his passion in stand up comedy. He worked the comedy circuit for several years before writing It's not a runner bean, a comic autobiography. This led to a column in The Guardian, and where his career really took off, as he was regarded seriously as a writer.
Steel wrote a column for The Guardian between 1996 and 1999. He was sacked by that newspaper (according to him because The Guardian wanted to "realign towards Tony Blair", though The Guardian deny this). In 2000 he started writing a weekly column for The Independent which appears every Thursday.
In 2000 Steel took part in the London Assembly elections on behalf of the London Socialist Alliance (a pre-cursor to the Socialist Alliance) in the Croydon & Sutton constituency; he received 1,823 votes (1.5 per cent of the vote).
He has written and performed several radio and television series for the BBC, and authored several books, as detailed below.
Radio programmes
- The Good Human Guide BBC Radio 2(1985). Contributing writer.
- Extra Time BBC Radio 5 . Presenter. Sports programme.
- The Mark Steel Solution (1992, 1994 - 1996) BBC Radio 5, BBC Radio 4
- Late Edition BBC Radio 4 (1995). Regular panellist on this satirical talk show.
- The Mark Steel Revolution (1998) BBC Radio 4
- The Mark Steel Lectures (1999 - 2002) BBC Radio 4
- Dedicated Troublemaker (2004) BBC Radio 4
- The News Quiz BBC Radio 4 several occasions from the late 1990s onwards. Guest panellist on this satirical news based panel game.
- Loose Ends BBC Radio 4. Interviewee.
- Midweek BBC Radio 4. Interviewee.
- Excess Baggage BBC Radio 4. Interviewee.
Television programmes
- Red Dwarf BBC 2 (1989). Playing Ski-man in episode 'Timeslides (non speaking part).
- Loose Talk (1994). Guest.
- The Late Jonathan Ross (1996). Guest.
- Does China Exist. (1997).
- If I Ruled the World BBC2 (1998). Guest panellist.
- Lamarr's Attacks (2000) BBC2. Guest.
- Never Mind the Buzzcocks BBC2 (2000, 2001). Guest panellist on this satirical music based panel game.
- Have I Got News for You BBC 1 (2002, 2003). Guest panellist on this satirical news based panel game.
- Question Time BBC 1 (2003, 2005) . Guest panellist on discussion show.
- The Mark Steel Lectures BBC 4 (2003). Writer and Presenter. Television version of his radio programme of the same title. Produced in association with The Open University.
- QI BBC 2, BBC 4 (2004). Guest panellist.
- Mock the Week, BBC 2 (2005). Guest panellist.
Books
- Printed
- Vive La Revolution (2003) ISBN 0743208056, (2004) ISBN 0743208064 History of the French Revolution.
- Reasons To Be Cheerful (2001) ISBN 074320803X, (2002) ISBN 0743208048 Autobiography concentrating on political activism.
- It's Not A Runner Bean (1996) ISBN 1899344128, (2004) ISBN 1904316433 Autobiography concentrating on his comedy career.
- Audiobooks
- Reasons to Be Cheerful: From Punk to New Labour Through the Eyes of a Dedicated Troublemaker (2001) cassette ISBN 0743500628
External links
- Site devoted to him by his agents Off The Kerb. (http://www.offthekerb.co.uk/artists/b_artists_home.jsp?artist=mark_steel)
- BBC site devoted to his radio version of The Mark Steel Lectures. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/marksteel.shtml)
- Open University site dedicated to the television version of The Mark Steel Lectures. (http://www.open2.net/marksteel/)
- Chortle profile. (http://www.chortle.co.uk/comics/comics.html?http&&&www.chortle.co.uk/comics/msteel.html)
- Information about It's Not A Runner Bean (including extract). (http://www.thedonotpress.com/titles/itsnotarun.html)
- Interview with Socialist Review. (http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?articlenumber=8609)
- Interview with Socialist Worker. (http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/1871/sw187115.htm)
- BBC Comedy Guide - Mark Steel Lectures (http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/m/marksteellectures_999031007.shtml) Includes a clip of one of the shows
- Open Directory Project - Mark Steel (http://dmoz.org/Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/Arts_and_Entertainment/Performing_Arts/Comedy/Comedians/Steel,_Mark) directory category
- Audio Files
- The Russian Revolution - Was It A Coup? (http://www.users.totalise.co.uk/~marks/1917coup.mp3) Mark's lecture at Marxism 1999
- Mark's lecture on Karl Marx at Marxism 2002 Part 1 (http://www.users.skynet.be/bk372187/karl-marx.mp3) Part 2 (http://www.aoxz03.dsl.pipex.com/karlmarx2.mp3)
- Mark's lecture on the French Revolution at Marxism 2003 (6th July 2003) Part 1 (http://www.stlimc.org/~marks/the-french-revolution.mp3) Part 2 (http://www.stlimc.org/~marks/the-french-revolution-2.mp3)
- Live performance at the Camden Centre in London (http://www.diversity-radio.net/archives/mark_steel_1.mp3) on 19th November 2003 as part of the programme of events in protest at the visit of US President George W. Bush