Mark, Man of Steel

Mark Steel

Life can be really strange sometimes. 

Over the weekend I visited my 81-year old dad, and was asked by him if I ever listen to Mark Steel on Radio 4. 

Dad was talking about the Radio 4 comedian's Mark Steel's in Town. He thought it was very funny. 

I said, no, I haven't been listening to Mark Steel's in Town. 

I didn't add that listening to ex-Socialist Workers Party loony lefties like Mark Steel is something I try to avoid on medical grounds. (Got to look after my blood pressure after all.)

He said I should listen to it, and that I'd like it.

I'm a bit ashamed to admit I thought, 'Meh!'

Then today at Biased BBC, a commentator with whom I've had a bit of unpleasant history (and who others at B-BBC have also suspected of being a 'false flag' due to the extreme nature of some of his comments) said that Mark Steel's in Town "really is rather good and genuinely funny" and "if you don’t chuckle after a few minutes you must be dead from the neck up."

Those two unexpected recommendations led me to listen to the two available editions of the programme and, yes, they were rather good and genuinely funny...with only the faintest whiff of SWP-ery. 

I think the problem I've always had with Mark Steel (besides his extremist politics, and anti-Israel activities) is that I've never quite believed his accent. It's always sounded a bit like a put-on to me. 

Now I'm so used to hearing it these days (as, no doubt, are you) that I barely think of it any more, but when I first heard him I simply didn't believe his accent was real.

He made me think of Nigel Kennedy, filmed as a youngster speaking 'posh English' then re-emerging as a punk violin-playing adult with a sub-Dick Van Dyke accent.

Plus this voice (both accent and depth) didn't seem to quite match his face or physique. 

Others seem to have no problem with it though, so maybe it's just me then.

Dick Van Dyke, as Caractacus Potts

Mark's Wikipedia entry, however (which stresses his childhood political awakenings in so convenient a way as to make me DEEPLY suspicious about who actually wrote it), only encouraged me to feel even more sceptical about him - that, plus the way, when socialistic matters crop up, his accent audibly broadens, Mockney-style (a la Tony Blair). 

Hmm.

Still, those two episodes of Mark Steel's in Town were so good - and so good-natured - that I've somewhat warmed to Mark Steel today and now mildly regret studiously avoiding his series in the past (and there have been five series of Mark Steel's in Town so far - not one of which I've thought of listening to).

As an example, Mark Steel took us to Birkenhead last week. 

He described a bar there called Moods and, whether he really "honestly" loved it or not (or merely thought, 'This is going to be great for my act!!'), his description of it was certainly funny - helped by his delivery and comic timing:

It is magnificent. I honestly loved it.

There was just a bare floor, a thin sort of bar, a karaoke machine, with blokes all the time going, 'SHTART SHPREADING ZHE NEWSSSHH, AAARHM LEAVIN TODAYERRAAAGHH' while a woman of about 60 in a very short skirt danced on a table. Honestly.

And a huge bloke rode up and down, up and down this thin bar on a mobility scooter.

I swear this is all honestly true.

And then 'Come On Eileen' came on, so the bloke from the mobility scooter got out and stripped off entirely naked and started, 'TOO-RYE, TOO-RYE-AY'...

Plus, his snippets of historical detail were, as they say on BBC TV, quite interesting. 

Yes, Mark Steel really can be quite good, and funny...

...and you learn something new every day.