Mark Steel

Town in Steel

One joy of making the Mark Steel's In Town series is experiencing the immense, sometimes ridiculous sense of pride in each place we visit, especially when there's nothing obvious to show off about.

Mark Steel calls Victor Lewis-Smith a joke thief

Mark Steel has accused critic Victor Lewis-Smith of stealing his material.

Victor Lewis Smith apologises to Mark Steel

The global issue of jokegate seems to be resolved. I received an apology from Victor Lewis Smith, so that's fair enough I'd say.

Mark Steel's back with his Sony Gold-winning stand-up programme, Mark Steel's in Town. And what a lovely show it is: slotting into that Radio 4 6.30pm slot with humanity, humility and, best of all, jokes that genuinely come out of the situation in which he finds himself. On Wednesday, Steel visited Handsworth and managed to engage the locals to such an extent that he could riff about a Rasta weatherman, in full Jamaican accent, and it not be offensive in any way. Good comedy is such an amazing skill, such a balancing act between telling the truth and pointing out faults, between teasing and bullying. Steel manages to be political and make an audience feel as though they've had a great big cuddle. That is a hard thing to do.

Comedy review: Mark Steel - Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh

Mark Steel is a worried man. He's fretting about being in his 50s, which means he's getting ever closer to taking a cruise holiday and he's concerned that he now has a teenage son with his own ideas and, it seems, a promising talent for jokewriting.

Mark Steel's in... Leith

Mark Steel's In Town has come up to the fringe festival to record a one-off episode of the stand-up show - this time about the Edinburgh district of Leith, home of Irvine Welsh, the Proclaimers, and some of the most bonkers pubs in Christendom. Here's some of what we picked up along the way...

This can't be right. The comedic chronicler of small-town Britain tackling the majesty of Auld Reekie? But fear not, Mark Steel is not concerned with the tourists traps on the Royal Mile; he's down the road in Leith. It may now be considered part of Edinburgh, but it only became so in 1920 despite fierce opposition from the locals, and Steel will be casting his, er, steely gaze upon the unique characteristics of the area.

And unique it is: there's the pub where staff perform The Rocky Horror Show on the bar and a cycling shop that held a birthday party for a hole in the road. It should make for a lively show, as long as there's no mention of trams - Leithians hate the new tram project with a vengeance.

New panel game, the premise of which is to see how well the contestants know their nearest and dearest. Rachel Johnson, Des Lynam and Mark Steel will each nominate a chosen relative or friend to whom, privily, a list of questions will be put. Chairman Miles Jupp will then test the panel's knowledge by asking them to predict what answers the nominees gave. Sounds oddly similar, perhaps, to those old TV games that came with loud buzzers, manic studio audiences and major prizes. No prizes though for guessing this week's celebrity guest, Michael Winner.

It was a formula that could have easily have been as self-indulgent as Dave Gorman's pub quiz disaster, but thankfully the show had several redeeming features. Host Miles Jupp's convoluted links between rounds were so bizarre they were funny and the contrasting personalities of those taking part also proved to have comedy value.

Best of all was hearing the celebs second-guessing the answers given by friends and family and getting it wrong. Mark Steel's nerves might have been on edge every time it was his son's turn but it made for very funny radio. This was especially true when young Elliot was asked if he had a motto and replied: "never do it without an alibi".