I feel really saddened by today’s news that children TV presenter, Mark Speight has been found dead. He took his own life. It appears that after the death of his fiance, he just couldn’t keep it together – he effectively died of a broken heart.
Mark was one of my favourite presenters on CBeebies – despite the fact I have always been completely uninterested in all things arty, Smarteenies amazingly still managed to keep me in the room and watching when it was on.
He had an energy and verve that is very rare – his manic “BIG PICTURE!” segment (once it had stopped scaring the hell out of Li’l Bhaji – I think it used to be the flamboyant hats Mark would wear to mark the transition between the different sized artwork, Li’l Bhaji was always a bit suspicious of people in hats) was the highlight of the show, and we always felt a little bit robbed if an episode didn’t have one.
He seemed a genuinely nice bloke – didn’t come across as fake and posed as some of the children’s presenters can. The sort of person you could relax down the pub with.
My thoughts go out to all his family and friends.
1 response so far ↓
1 Ys // 14th Apr 2008 at 3:41 pm
i read on teletext last night about his death. i don’t have any excuse to be watching cbbc but i did often see him presenting smart. he always seemed like a really fun guy. i remember him from my own childhood when he presented itv’s version of cbbc and he had plastic hair that looked like an ice-cream. to this day we call him “ice-cream head guy”. i was really shocked by his death :(
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