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Mark Speight

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Mark Speight
OccupationTV presenter

Mark Warwick Fordham Speight (6 August 1965 - 13 April 2008) was a British TV presenter. He was best known for presenting the long-running BBC children's art programme SMart.

In January 2008, Speight discovered the body of his fiancée and former colleague Natasha Collins at their London flat. He was arrested in connection with the death, but all charges were dropped. On 8 April 2008, Speight was reported missing by family and friends, after having failed to attend a meeting the day before. On 13 April, it was reported that Speight's body was found at London's Paddington railway station. Formal identification is yet to take place.

Biography

Speight was born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire in 1965, and grew up in Wolverhampton, West Midlands.

Television

After studying at Tettenhall College and Regis School (now known as King's Church of England School, Wolverhampton), Speight went on to obtain a degree in commercial and graphic art. He made his entry into television presenting after hearing about auditions for SMart while working on the set of a television production. He went on to present SMart with various co-presenters from its start in 1994 until 2008. He achieved further fame while starring in BAFTA-nominated ITV Saturday morning show Scratchy & Co. in the mid 1990s.

Speight worked on numerous other shows, ranging from children's television to adult factual programmes. Mark played the Abominable No Man in Timmy Mallett's Timmy Towers. He hosted the series Beat the Cyborgs, See It Saw It, SMarteenies and, for Discovery Kids, History Busters, which won a Royal Television Society Award, and made appearances on Blue Peter, The Saturday Show, This Morning and The Heaven and Earth Show, and was also a contestant in ITV's Celebrity Wrestling.

Other work

Speight regularly toured with Speight of the Art, art workshops he ran for children, and was involved in charity work, notably as President of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign. During the Christmas period, he usually became involved in pantomime, and performed in Cinderella at the Watersmeet, Rickmansworth in December 2007.

Arrest and disappearance

On the morning of 3 January 2008, Speight called emergency services having discovered the body of his fiancée and former See It Saw It colleague in the bath of their London flat. Speight told police that he and Collins had spent the previous evening "partying" and had taken cocaine and sleeping pills, wine and vodka. Speight was subsequently arrested on suspicion of murder and of supplying class A drugs and released on bail. An inquest into the death, which opened on 8 January 2008, heard that that death was not thought to be suspicious, but that it should be "subject to further investigation". At that point, police were awaiting results of toxicology tests after a postmortem examination proved inconclusive. Speight denied any involvement with Collins's death, and on 19 March 2008 it was reported that all charges against him relating to the death had been dropped. The BBC cancelled repeat broadcasts of SMart and SMarteenies until further notice, and on 28 February 2008 Speight announced he was quitting the programme Smart, because the "tragic loss" of Collins had left him unable to continue with the show..

In April 2008, the coroner recorded a verdict of "death by misadventure" in the case of Collins' death. The inquest found that she had taken "very significant" amounts of cocaine with sleeping pills and vodka, and that she had suffered 60% burns to her body. The pathologist gave the cause of death as cocaine toxicity and immersion in hot water. The coroner noted that at some stage in the night after both Speight and Collins had gone to bed, Collins got up to have a bath. He said that it was "more likely than not" that a heart problem had caused Collins to fall unconscious while the hot tap was running.

On 8 April 2008, Speight was reported missing by family and friends after failing to attend a meeting on the afternoon of 7 April. He was dropped off at Wood Green tube station, London in the morning, and last seen in the afternoon boarding a Bakerloo line train. On 8 April, both his mother and the mother of Natasha Collins made a public appeal in which they urged him to make contact. Speight's father has also appealed for him to get in touch. Police confirmed that they had spoken to Speight on the day of his disappearance, saying he appeared "distracted". Speight reportedly refused all offers of help when approached by police.

Death

On 13 April the British Transport Police said they believed the body of a man found in an isolated section of Paddington Station was that of Mark Speight. Formal identification is yet to take place and they said that investigations were ongoing into CCTV footage. The police are treating the death as "unexplained" but have confirmed that he had not been hit by a train. According to The Sun, this yet to be positively identified person hanged himself from the roof of the station. It is believed the body hung undiscovered for six days in the roof space above Paddington station.

References

  1. Parkes, Diane (2005-09-16). "Telly star Mark a victim of bullies". icBirmingham. Midland Newspapers. Retrieved 2008-01-08.
  2. ^ Dakin, Melanie (2007-12-06). "CBBC SMart host Mark Speight draws the crowds at The Watersmeet". Bucks Free Press. Newsquest Media Group. Retrieved 2008-01-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. Stratton, Allegra (2008-01-04). "BBC star bailed after death of girlfriend". Guardian Unlimited. Guardian News and Media. Retrieved 2008-01-05. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. "RTS Awards - the winners". Manchester Evening News. M.E.N. media. 2003-11-17. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  5. Bishop, Tom (2005-04-14). "ITV wrestles for Saturday ratings". BBC News. BBC. Retrieved 2008-01-04.
  6. "Mark Speight". Billy Marsh Associates. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  7. ^ "Fiancee death presenter missing". BBC News Online. 2008-04-08. Retrieved 2008-04-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ "TV star Mark Speight 'missing' after fiancee Natasha Collins' inquest". The Times. 2008-04-08. Retrieved 2008-04-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. "Presenter death 'not suspicious'". BBC News Online. 2008-01-08. Retrieved 2008-01-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ Ryan, Rosalind (2008-01-07). "Postmortem on Speight's fiancee inconclusive'". Guardian Unlimited. Guardian News and Media. Retrieved 2008-01-07.
  11. ^ "CBBC star 'distraught' over death". BBC News Online. 2008-01-04. Retrieved 2008-01-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. "CBBC star leaves show over death". BBC News Online. 2008-02-28. Retrieved 2008-02-29. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. "Actress died after taking drugs". BBC News Online. accessdate = 2008-04-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Missing pipe in: |date= (help)
  14. "TV presenter 'had memorial plans'". BBC News Online. 2008-04-11. Retrieved 2008-04-11. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. "Family plea to missing presenter". BBC News Online. 2008-04-08. Retrieved 2008-04-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. "Missing star told 'don't give up'". BBC News Online. 2008-04-12. Retrieved 2008-04-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. "Police spoke to missing presenter". BBC News Online. 2008-04-09. Retrieved 2008-04-12. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. "TV host Mark Speight 'found dead'". BBC News Online. 2008-04-13. Retrieved 2008-04-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. "It was all too much for TV star". The Sun. 2008-04-14. Retrieved 2008-04-14. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

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