Mark Steel

Mark Steel gets the Yorkshire relish

No Yorkshire stereotype was left untapped when Mark Steel tried to make them laugh in Skipton - and succeeded.

Mark Steel: The significance of a concrete hippo in Walsall

Each year, if you travel round the country, you see every town becoming more depressingly impersonal and identical. You could be in Inverness, Plymouth or Norwich and guarantee the shopping precinct consisted of a Body Shop, H&M, Clinton Cards, a shut-down Woolworths, a Wetherspoon, a fake Irish pub, a Nando's, a Pizza Hut with yawning teenager and glass screw-top jar of stuck-together parmesan cheese, River Island, Boots, Vodafone, a student in plastic bib overly keen to sign you up for Amnesty International and a bunch of Peruvians playing "I just Called To Say I Love You" on the poxy pan-pipes.

Writer and comedian Mark Steel goes on tour, visiting six different towns across the UK and tuning into their foibles.

After delving into the history of each town, and getting to know the people, he creates a bespoke stand-up show which is performed before a local audience.

His destinations are Lewes, Skipton, Boston, Walsall, Merthyr Tydfil and one more yet to be confirmed. Maybe it's your town.

Comedian puts Skipton in the spotlight

Radio Four listeners will be transported to Skipton next week.

For, on Wednesday, they will be able to hear the first of a new six-part series by veteran stand-up comedian, author and commentator Mark Steel.

For the series, Mark visits six UK towns and delves into their history, people and idiosyncrasies to try to work out what makes the place distinctive.

And Skipton is his first port of call.

Radio Head: Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation

Rowland Rivron, Sandi Toksvig, Mark Steel, Mark Thomas, Jo Brand, Graham Fellowes, Russell Brand . . . the list of modern comedians that divides the nation is a surprisingly lengthy one. And it will be only part of the listening public that will be rearranging its life to be in front of the wireless when the latest series of the sociopolitical lecture Jeremy Hardy Speaks to the Nation kicks off next Tuesday (Radio 4, 6.30pm).

The Mark Steel Lectures

For me, the Radio 4 series of The Mark Steel Lectures was a delight. In each episode, he proved himself to be one of the few people who can talk passionately and entertainingly about relatively academic subjects. Some were naturally more interesting than others - a subject like Aristotle is always going to be difficult to sell to a comedy audience, after all - but all were entertaining, with a good balance of facts and jokes. This was often achieved by concentrating as much on the subjects' personalities as their achievements, and usually the best moments would be the asides, reflecting how modern society would interpret each subject's activities and eccentricities.

Heard the one about Darwin's worms?

Simon Schama and the rest may have made history popular, but why do they always leave out the funny bits, asks Mark Steel.

Mark Steel lectures on laughter

Comedian and writer Mark Steel is hard at work editing the forthcoming TV version of his popular BBC Radio Four series The Mark Steel lectures.