Mark Steel's In Town

Radio Review: Mark Steel's in Town

A little local knowledge helps Mark Steel dish the dirt on Dartford, writes Elisabeth Mahoney.

Mark Steel in "The Knightsbridge of the north"

Mark Steel was in town last night to perform his stand up comedy show all about Wilmslow and Alderley Edge.



A new series and rabbits and Chas 'n' Dave

A few weeks ago I began the awkward business of starting work on a second series.

A wry look at life on Portland

Comedian Mark Steel won over Portlanders with a wry look at island life.

His routine, which will be broadcast on Radio 4 next Wednesday, featured the Echo's Portland Correspondent Hilda Swinney and local historian Stuart Morris.

Mark Steel says Merthyr Tydfil has lost its fighting spirit

Comedian Mark Steel's current Radio 4 series sees him performing bespoke gigs in Britain's less celebrated towns. Gavin Allen talks to him about tonight's show which he recorded in Merthyr Tydfil.

Mark Steel interview

Comedian Mark Steel talks about his latest radio venture, his reality show dreams with Anne Widdecombe, and what he's up to next...

And I should mention Mark Steel's In Town, in which the comedian visits small towns across the UK and tailor-makes a stand-up routine for the locals. Last week was Boston, which bore Steel's mickey-taking about its lack of hills with amusement. A simple idea, kindly and wittily executed by another unfashionably humane Englishman. Thank Gaia they still exist.

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.