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Mark Steel is a British socialist
columnist and comedian. He has been a member of
the Socialist_Workers_Party_(UK)|Socialist Workers
Party since his late teens. 

==Early life==
Steel was a typical disaffected teenager growing
up in the Swanley, Kent, UK in the late 1970s. 
His anger and frustration at societies injustices
were vented by political protests, punk music and
poetry.

He was expelled from school, and went onto work in
a garage and then live in a squat. From here he
went on to make his first public performance as a
poet.

==Career==
Steel found an outlet for his passion in stand up
comedy.  He worked the comedy circuit for several
years before writing It's not a runner bean, a
comic autobiography. This led to a column in The
Guardian, and where his career really took off, as
he was regarded seriously as a writer.

Steel wrote a column for The Guardian between 1996
and 1999. He was sacked by that newspaper
(according to him because The Guardian wanted to
"realign towards Tony Blair", though The Guardian
deny this). In 2000 he started writing a weekly
column for The Independent which appears every
Thursday. 

In 2000 Steel took part in the London Assembly
elections on behalf of the London Socialist
Alliance (a pre-cursor to the Socialist Alliance)
in the Croydon & Sutton constituency; he received
1,823 votes (1.5 per cent of the vote).

He has written and performed several radio and
television series for the BBC, and authored
several books, as detailed below.

==Radio programmes==
*The Good Human Guide BBC Radio 2(1985).
Contributing writer.
*Extra Time BBC Radio 5 . Presenter. Sports
programme.
*The Mark Steel Solution (1992, 1994 - 1996) BBC
Radio 5, BBC Radio 4
*Late Edition BBC Radio 4 (1995). Regular
panellist on this satirical talk show.
*The Mark Steel Revolution (1998) BBC Radio 4
*The Mark Steel Lectures (1999 - 2002) BBC Radio 4
*Dedicated Troublemaker (2004) BBC Radio 4
*The News Quiz BBC Radio 4 several occasions from
the late 1990s onwards. Guest panellist on this
satirical news based panel game.
*Loose Ends (radio)|Loose Ends BBC Radio 4.
Interviewee.
*Midweek BBC Radio 4. Interviewee.
*Excess Baggage (radio)|Excess Baggage BBC Radio
4. Interviewee.

==Television programmes==
*Red Dwarf (television)|Red Dwarf BBC 2 (1989).
Playing Ski-man in episode 'Timeslides (non
speaking part). 
*Loose Talk (1994). Guest.
*The Late Jonathan Ross (1996). Guest.
*Does China Exist. (1997).
*If I Ruled the World BBC2 (1998). Guest
panellist.
*Lamarr's Attacks (2000) BBC2. Guest.
*Never Mind the Buzzcocks BBC2 (2000, 2001). Guest
panellist on this satirical music based panel
game.
*Have I Got News for You BBC 1 (2002, 2003, 2004).
Guest panellist on this satirical news based panel
game.
*Question Time (television)|Question Time BBC 1
(2003, 2005) . Guest panellist on discussion show.
*The Mark Steel Lectures BBC 4 (2003). Writer and
Presenter. Television version of his radio
programme of the same title. Produced in
association with The Open University.
*QI BBC 2, BBC 4 (2004). Guest panellist.
*Mock the Week, BBC 2 (2005). Guest panellist.

==Books==
*Printed
**Vive La Revolution (2003) ISBN 0743208056,
(2004) ISBN 0743208064 History of the French
Revolution.
**Reasons To Be Cheerful (2001) ISBN 074320803X,
(2002) ISBN 0743208048 Autobiography concentrating
on political activism.
**It's Not A Runner Bean (1996) ISBN 1899344128,
(2004) ISBN 1904316433 Autobiography concentrating
on his comedy career.
*Audiobooks
**Reasons to Be Cheerful: From Punk to New Labour
Through the Eyes of a Dedicated Troublemaker
(2001) cassette ISBN 0743500628

==External links==
*http://www.offthekerb.co.uk/artists/b_artists_hom
e.jsp?artist=mark_steel Site devoted to him by his
agents Off The Kerb.
*http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/marksteel.shtm
l BBC site devoted to his radio version of The
Mark Steel Lectures.
*http://www.open2.net/marksteel/ Open University
site dedicated to the television version of The
Mark Steel Lectures.
*http://www.chortle.co.uk/comics/comics.html?http&
&&www.chortle.co.uk/comics/msteel.html Chortle
profile.
*http://www.thedonotpress.com/titles/itsnotarun.ht
ml Information about It's Not A Runner Bean
(including extract).
*http://www.socialistreview.org.uk/article.php?art
iclenumber=8609 Interview with Socialist Review.
*http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/1871/sw187115.ht
m Interview with Socialist Worker.
*http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/articles/m/mark
steellectures_999031007.shtml BBC Comedy Guide -
Mark Steel Lectures Includes a clip of one of the
shows
*http://dmoz.org/Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/Ar
ts_and_Entertainment/Performing_Arts/Comedy/Comedi
ans/Steel,_Mark Open Directory Project - Mark
Steel directory category

*Audio Files
**http://www.users.totalise.co.uk/~marks/1917coup.
mp3 The Russian Revolution - Was It A Coup? Mark's
lecture at Marxism 1999
**Mark's lecture on Karl Marx at Marxism 2002
http://www.users.skynet.be/bk372187/karl-marx.mp3
Part 1
http://www.aoxz03.dsl.pipex.com/karlmarx2.mp3 Part
2
**Mark's lecture on the French Revolution at
Marxism 2003 (6th July 2003)
http://www.stlimc.org/~marks/the-french-revolution
.mp3 Part 1
http://www.stlimc.org/~marks/the-french-revolution
-2.mp3 Part 2
**http://www.diversity-radio.net/archives/mark_ste
el_1.mp3 Live performance at the Camden Centre in
London on 19th November 2003 as part of the
programme of events in protest at the visit of US
President George W. Bush