Mark Steel's in Town

6/6 - Unst - 'The Island Above All Others'. After performing in Lerwick earlier in the series, Mark’s Shetland adventure concludes in Unst, as far north as you can get. There will also be extended versions of each episode available on BBC Sounds. Written and performed by Mark Steel Additional material by Pete Sinclair Production co-ordinators Caroline Barlow and Katie Baum Sound Manager Jerry Peal...

For the fifth stop of the series, Mark travels to Lerwick, the capital of Shetland, perched at the far edge of Britain, where everyone’s on first-name terms with the fog. It’s a place where Viking heritage meets oil rigs and knitting patterns, where the winter fire festival Up Helly Aa lights up the darkness, and where the locals are masters of making their own fun. This is the first of Mark’s two...

Mark Steel visits Cambridge and creates a show for the local audience. There will also be extended versions of each episode available on BBC sounds. Written and performed by Mark Steel Additional material by Pete Sinclair Production co-ordinator Caroline Barlow and Katie Baum Sound Manager Jerry Peal Producer Carl Cooper A BBC Studios production for Radio 4

Mark Steel visits Lewisham in south London and creates a show for the local audience. There will also be extended versions of each episode available on BBC sounds. Written and performed by Mark Steel Additional material by Pete Sinclair Production co-ordinator Caroline Barlow and Katie Baum Sound Manager Chris Maclean Producer Carl Cooper A BBC Studios production for Radio 4

Second stop of the new series is Wrexham in North Wales. Wrexham has gone from industrial workhorse to global celebrity, thanks to two Hollywood actors who bought the local football club. It’s a place where five of the Seven Wonders of Wales are apparently within walking distance of a Screwfix, where children learn “risk management” on playgrounds made from drainpipes salvaged at the council tip,...

First stop of the new series is Oakham, nestled in the UK’s smallest county – Rutland. Rutland has a village that's proudly twinned with Paris (even if the Parisians don’t know), has Europe’s largest man-made lake (which required flooding a local village) and hangs its horseshoes the other way round (so the devil falls out, obviously). Joining Mark is Clare Balding, who’s also in town to take him...

Mark Steel’s award-winning show where he travels around the UK visiting towns with nothing in common but their uniqueness. After thoroughly researching each town, Mark writes and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for a local audience "...Coleraine is a big town and is ready for City status..." Mark visits the town of Coleraine in Northern Ireland. Written and performed by Mark Steel Additional...

Mark Steel’s award-winning show where he travels around the UK visiting towns with nothing in common but their uniqueness. After thoroughly researching each town, Mark writes and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for a local audience. “...a place where all the baristas know your name ... " Next stop, Mark is in Nether Edge, a leafy suburb of Sheffield which wants to become a village. Here he sa...

The award-winning show where Mark Steel travels around the UK visiting towns with nothing in common but their uniqueness. After thoroughly researching each town, Mark writes and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for a local audience. Next stop, Mark visits the city of Stoke-on-Trent, part of the industrial area know as The Potteries. Mark chats to the locals about their town, hears about how fr...

The award-winning show where Mark Steel travels around the UK visiting towns with nothing in common but their uniqueness. After thoroughly researching each town, Mark writes and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for a local audience. Next stop, Mark visits East Grinstead and chats to locals about their town, and discovers its places of interest, including the historic high street. Plus its conn...

The award-winning show where Mark Steel travels around the UK visiting towns with nothing in common but their uniqueness. After thoroughly researching each town, Mark writes and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for a local audience. Next stop, Mark visits the Malvern hills in Worcestershire. “...if ever after I'm dead you hear someone whistling this tune on the Malvern Hills, don't be alarmed,...

Mark Steel is back with the 13th series of his award-winning show where he travels around the UK visiting towns with nothing in common but their uniqueness. After thoroughly researching each town, Mark writes and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for a local audience. First stop, Mark packs his bucket and spade and visits the lovely seaside town of Margate in the Thanet district of Kent. “...a...

Mark Steel's In Town - Paris Mark Steel is back with the 12th series of his award-winning show that travels around the country visiting towns that have nothing in common but their uniqueness. After thoroughly researching each town, Mark writes and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for a local audience. In this final episode Mark visits Paris. Yeah, that Paris. The one in France. Where he perfor...

Mark Steel continues his award winning show that travels around the country visiting towns that have nothing in common but their uniqueness. After thoroughly researching each location, Mark writes and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for a local audience. Mark brushes up on his French and visits Paris. Yeah, that Paris. The one in France. He's set to perform an evening of comedy on board a boa...

Mark Steel continues his award-winning show travelling around the country visiting towns that have nothing in common but their uniqueness. After thoroughly researching each town, he writes and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for a local audience. Mark is in Newport in South Wales and uncovers some of the history and local stories and people. Written and performed by Mark Steel. Additional mat...

Mark Steel continues his award-winning show travelling around the country visiting towns that have nothing in common but their uniqueness. After thoroughly researching each town, he writes and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for a local audience. Mark is in Wiltshire's cathedral city of Salisbury - situated near the edge of Salisbury Plain. Written and performed by Mark Steel. Additional mate...

Mark Steel continues his award-winning show travelling around the country visiting towns that have nothing in common but their uniqueness. After thoroughly researching each town, he writes and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for a local audience. Mark arrives on the Isles of Scilly, dipping into local history and tales of shipwrecks. Written and performed by Mark Steel Additional material by...

Mark Steel continues his award-winning show travelling around the country visiting towns that have nothing in common but their uniqueness. After thoroughly researching each town, he writes and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for a local audience. Mark moves on to Tring in Hertfordshire and discovers the home of the Natural History Museum, and the former private museum of Walter Rothschild, wh...

"Ay up me duck!" Mark Steel returns with the 12th series of his award winning show that travels around the country visiting towns that have nothing in common but their uniqueness. After thoroughly researching each town, he writes and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for a local audience. Mark is kicking off with a visit to Nottingham in the East Midlands. It's a contrarian city, full of heroes...

There’s one thing you definitely can’t miss in Whitby and that’s the ruined abbey up on a cliff looking down on the town. It’s also hard to miss the jawbone of a blue whale set atop the opposite hill and the fact that Dracula was a researched and written here by Bram Stoker. You’ll not go wanting if you are in search of a chip either. Mark Steel manages to dodge the seagulls and presents his findi...

Walthamstow has got plenty going for it - "it has the requisite villagey middle-class bit, but with a proper gor-blimey guv'nor East End heart" says one newspaper article and Mark finds a town mid-gentrification. The dog track has gone, the famously long market remains but there is also a Viking Shop and an extraordinary showroom and workshop with a vast range of neon light fittings called God's O...

The famous Blyth Staithes (created for off-loading coal into ships) were the backdrop for one of the grimmest scenes in the Michael Caine classic Get Carter - the smoggy industrial view at the time described by the director as an "absolute vision of hell". Undaunted, comedian Mark Steel travels to this part of Northumberland and finds a fascinating industrial legacy, a posh pub, a very nice beach...

Mark Steel with a short series of shows recorded during the coronavirus pandemic. Following two COVID-friendly live outdoor episodes Mark is back for a special, one-off show performed to a remote, virtual audience where he'll be talking about some of the places he has visited over the course of 10 series of Mark Steel’s in Town. He’ll explore what’s happened since his visits and tell us about some...

Another of Mark Steel's short series of shows recorded outdoors during the coronavirus pandemic. The bubonic plague didn't stop Shakespeare from working. So for this show, Mark performs on a tree stump in The Dell Gardens, Stratford-upon-Avon in front of a small but lovely local crowd. In between being interrupted by geese, Mark asks the people gathered on the grass in the RSC's outdoor performanc...

Mark Steel kicks off a short series recorded during the coronavirus pandemic. For the first ever outdoor Mark Steel's In Town episode - and BBC Radio 4 Comedy's first ever COVID-friendly audience show - what better place to start than on the beach in Brighton? The town is famous for its pavilion, piers and progressive nature as well as for being the playground of George, Prince Regent But Mark is...