Mark Steel
Mark Steel (born 4 July 1960) is an English author, broadcaster, stand-up comedian and newspaper columnist.[1] He has made many appearances on radio and television shows as a guest panellist, and has written regular columns in The Guardian, The Independent and Daily Mirror.[2] He presents The Mark Steel Lectures, The Mark Steel Solution, Mark Steel's in Town and the podcast What the fuck is going on?.[3]
Not to be confused with Mark Steele.Mark Steel
1983–present
Career[edit]
Steel had various early jobs including a stint as a milkman.[7] He became bored with answering how he started in comedy and took to saying the first thing that came into his head. He worked the comedy circuit for several years, and acknowledges Alexei Sayle as an influence.[11][7] In 1992 Steel presented the satirical radio show The Mark Steel Solution on BBC Radio 5, consisting of half-hour monologues offering solutions to social problems. It ran to four series. A comic autobiography, It's Not a Runner Bean, was published in 1996 which led to a column in The Guardian between 1996 and 1999. In 2000 he started writing the Thursday Opinion Column for The Independent.
He has appeared frequently on Have I Got News For You, Room 101, Mock the Week, the Graham Norton Show, and has made several appearances on Question Time. Mark Steel's in Town has won a Sony Award, Writers' Guild Award, Chortle Awards and British Comedy Guide Awards. In 2014 he won the British Press Award for Broadsheet Columnist for his column in The Independent.
He has written and performed several radio and television series for the BBC, and written several books including Reasons to Be Cheerful, Vive la Révolution – an account of the French Revolution, and It's Not a Runner Bean.[12]
In 2015 he toured a show Who Do I Think I Am, about his adoption and tracing his biological parents. It was broadcast as a show on Radio 4.
In 2017, Steel was back on stage with his show Every Little Thing’s Gonna Be Alright.[13]
Personal life[edit]
Steel is a supporter of Crystal Palace F.C. and Kent County Cricket Club. During the South Africa series in 2008 he was interviewed by Jonathan Agnew on Test Match Special about his love of cricket.[14]
He has a son, Elliot Steel, who is also a stand-up comedian,[15] and a daughter from a relationship that ended in 2006.[16] He was married to Natasha Steel until 2016.[17]
In October 2023, Steel revealed he was undergoing surgery after a diagnosis of throat cancer.[18]
Politics[edit]
During the premiership of Margaret Thatcher, when he was in his 20s, Steel vented his objections to society's injustices via political protests, punk rock, and poetry.
Viewing the Soviet Union as "shit", and as a state capitalist system rather than truly socialist, Steel joined the Socialist Workers Party (SWP). He was present in Southall during the riot in which Blair Peach was killed.
In 2000, Steel took part in the London Assembly elections[19] on behalf of the London Socialist Alliance (part of the Socialist Alliance) in the Croydon and Sutton constituency; he received 1,823 votes (1.5% of the vote).
At the 2010 UK General Election Steel co-hosted a fundraiser entitled "Laugh! I nearly voted" with Joe Lycett, Lewis Costello and Matt Green in support of left-wing candidates at the Dancehouse theatre in Manchester. Proceeds went to the respective campaigns of Gayle O'Donovan of the Green Party of England and Wales in Manchester Central, David Joseph Henry, the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition candidate for Salford and Eccles and Dr Kay Philips of the Respect Party in Blackley and Broughton.[20]
In February 2013, Steel was among those who supported the People's Assembly in a letter published in The Guardian.[21] He spoke at a press conference to launch the People's Assembly Against Austerity on 26 March 2013,[22] and at regional public meetings[23] in the lead up to a national meeting at Westminster Central Hall on 22 June 2013. He also gave a speech at the People's Assembly Conference in Westminster.
Prior to the 2015 UK general election, he endorsed the parliamentary candidacy of the Green Party's Caroline Lucas.[24]