Mark Speight
Encyclopedia
Mark Warwick Fordham Speight (6 August 1965 – 7 April 2008) was an English
television presenter
, best known as the host of children's art programme SMart
. Speight grew up in Tettenhall
, Wolverhampton
, and left school at 16 to become a cartoonist. He took a degree in commercial
and graphic art
and, while working in television set construction
, heard of auditions for a new children's art programme. Speight was successful in his audition and became one of the first presenters of SMart
, working on it for 14 years.
Speight was also a presenter on See It Saw It
, where he met his future fiancée Natasha Collins
. He took part in live events, such as Rolf on Art
and his own Speight of the Art workshops for children. He was involved in charity work; he became the president of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign
's Young Pavement Artists Competition, and was a spokesperson for ChildLine
.
In January 2008, Speight found the body of Collins in the bath of their London flat. He was arrested on suspicion of her murder, but not charged with any offence. An inquest later determined Collins had died of a drug overdose and severe burns from hot water. In April, Speight was reported missing and committed suicide by hanging
himself near Paddington Station
. Two suicide notes were discovered a few days later, describing how he could no longer live without Collins.
, Staffordshire
, and grew up in Tettenhall
, Wolverhampton
. Speight had two siblings, Tina-Louise Richmond (née Speight), and Jason Speight. His father, Oliver Warwick Speight (born 1938 in Barton
to Leonard George (1904–1992) Speight and Evelyn Ada (1899–1994) West), is a property developer, and his mother, Jacqueline Fordham Speight (née Parker), was an art teacher. Jacqueline died on 5 September 2008, aged 62, from a stroke
allegedly brought on by the stress of her son's death. Speight attended the independent school
Tettenhall College
for a year, before moving to state comprehensive
Regis School, now known as King's C.E. School, also in Tettenhall, at the age of 12. Speight stated in an interview he was a slow learner at school, with a short attention span, and art was a way for him to communicate. He said he did "very badly" because he was a victim of bullying, and the "daily ordeal for two years" forced him to become the "class joker". Speight left aged 16 and went on to attend Bilston
Art School, where he took a degree in commercial and graphic art.
of a television production. He auditioned for SMart
, and following a successful interview where he met future co-presenter Jay Burridge
, he went on to present SMart from its first edition in 1994. Speight became close friends with Burridge, whose art studio in West London was used to create all of the art content for SMart; Burridge noted: "We would bounce ideas and jokes off each other all day until we had developed an almost telepathically linked knowledge of what made each other laugh." Speight and Burridge were joined by third presenter Zoë Ball
, who was replaced first by Josie D'Arby
, and then Kirsten O'Brien
. With Burridge and O'Brien, Speight presented the spin-off shows SMarteenies
and SMart on the Road, and participated in various live events. He achieved further fame while starring in the BAFTA-nominated ITV
Saturday morning show Scratchy & Co.
from 1995 until 1998.
Speight worked on numerous other shows, ranging from children's television to adult factual programmes. His children's television credits include playing the Abominable No Man in Timmy Mallett
's Timmy Towers and presenting Beat the Cyborgs, Name That Toon, On Your Marks, Insides Out
, and History Busters, the last of which won a Royal Television Society
Award. Speight also worked on This Morning
, The Heaven and Earth Show
, The Big Breakfast
and was a contestant in ITV's Celebrity Wrestling
. Speight also played the king on children's programme See It Saw It
, where he met Natasha Collins
. Collins was seriously injured after being hit by a car in 2001, and had to leave See It Saw It. Speight began dating her in 2003, and they became engaged in Barbados
in 2005. They planned to get married in fancy dress and Speight joked that the wedding might feature monkeys, his favourite animal.
In 2004, Speight participated in Rolf Harris
's Rolf on Art
, for which a giant reproduction of John Constable
's The Hay Wain
was created in Trafalgar Square
. In 2005, he was involved in a similar project where Hans Holbein
's portrait of Henry VIII
and Leonardo da Vinci
's Mona Lisa
were both reconstructed, the latter in the grounds of Edinburgh Castle
. Speight had planned a project involving a trip to Borneo
in March 2008 to train abused orangutan
s not to fight each other, but this never took place. Speight regularly toured with Speight of the Art, a series of art workshops he ran for children, and during the Christmas
period, he became involved in pantomime
, performing as "Buttons" in Cinderella at the Watersmeet, Rickmansworth
in December 2007.
Speight was involved in charity work. He was President of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign
's Young Pavement Artists Competition, originally a one-off year-long project that ended up lasting eight years, and he was a spokesperson for ChildLine
. In 2007, he was the presenter of the Müller Big Art Project for Comic Relief
in Trafalgar Square.
flat, in northwest London. Speight told police that he and Collins had spent the previous evening "partying", drinking wine and vodka, and taking cocaine and sleeping pills. Speight was questioned by police since he was the only other person living in the flat, and was subsequently arrested on suspicion of murder and of supplying class A drugs, but was released on bail until the first week of February. Because of this, the BBC cancelled the Saturday repeat edition of SMart. An inquest, which opened on 8 January 2008, heard that the death was not thought to be suspicious but should be "subject to further investigation". At that point, police were awaiting results of toxicology
tests after a postmortem examination was inconclusive. The BBC cancelled repeat broadcasts of SMart and SMarteenies until further notice, and on 28 February Speight announced he was quitting SMart, because the "tragic loss" of Collins had left him unable to continue with the show. Speight denied any involvement with Collins's death, and on 19 March it was reported that the police were no longer considering Speight as a suspect.
In April 2008, the coroner recorded a verdict of death by misadventure in relation to Collins. The cause of death was "cocaine toxicity and immersion in hot water", according to the consultant pathologist. 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, including her tongue. 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. Following Collins's death, Speight moved in with Collins's mother.
Speight planned to meet with Collins's mother at Covent Garden
for a coffee on the afternoon of 7 April. He was dropped off at Wood Green tube station
that morning, but never showed up to meet her. Speight missed an appointment with a counsellor, but this was because of confusion over dates. Two police officers spoke to him, as he appeared "vacant", "distracted" and "deep in thought", but he refused their help. He was captured on CCTV in the afternoon taking money from a cash machine
at Queen's Park station
, and he subsequently boarded a southbound Bakerloo line
train. He was reported missing the following day by family and friends, and his mother and the mother of Natasha Collins made a public appeal in which they urged him to make contact. Speight's father also appealed for him to get in touch.
from the roof of MacMillan House, adjacent to London's Paddington Station, hidden from public view, six days after he died. The discovery was made by railway workers at 10:00 am, and British Transport Police
confirmed that the body was Speight's on 14 April 2008. An inquest into his death opened on 16 April 2008, and a post-mortem confirmed the cause of death as hanging
. It was then adjourned until 20 May. The police said Speight may have used a sixth floor fire exit to get to the area where he was found.
The report of Speight's death on the BBC's children's news programme Newsround
provoked complaints that it upset young viewers. The BBC decided to avoid using the word "suicide," and instead Newsround reported that "police don't think he was killed by another person."
Speight's funeral was held on 28 April at St Michael and All Angels Church in Tettenhall, and hundreds went to pay their respects. The service included a performance by the choir from Tettenhall College, Speight's former school, and his coffin was carried out of the church accompanied by the theme tune of SMart. In May, the inquest resumed and determined that Speight was deeply depressed from his fiancee's death. He had first tried to hang himself with his belt, which was found snapped in his pocket, and had ended up hanging himself with his shoelaces; it was also disclosed that suicide notes had been found, one in his left pocket, and one addressed to his parents in his diary at his home. The notes described how he could not "contemplate life without [Collins]". The coroner Dr Paul Knapman
said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death. In May 2008, Speight's father created a foundation, Speight Of The Art, or SP8 Of The Art, and launched it at a memorial service which took place on what would have been his 43rd birthday, 6 August 2008 at St Paul's Church
in Covent Garden, London.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
television presenter
Presenter
A presenter, or host , is a person or organization responsible for running an event. A museum or university, for example, may be the presenter or host of an exhibit. Likewise, a master of ceremonies is a person that hosts or presents a show...
, best known as the host of children's art programme SMart
SMart
SMart was a British CBBC television programme based on the subject of art, which began in 1994. The programme was recorded at BBC Television Centre in London, previously it had been recorded in Studio A at BBC Pebble Mill in Birmingham. The format is similar to the Tony Hart programmes Take Hart...
. Speight grew up in Tettenhall
Tettenhall
Tettenhall is a historic part of the city of Wolverhampton, England. The name Tettenhall is probably derived from Teotta's Halh, Teotta being a person's name and Halh being a sheltered position...
, Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
, and left school at 16 to become a cartoonist. He took a degree in commercial
Commercial art
Commercial art is historically a subsector of creative services, referring to art created for commercial purposes, primarily advertising. The term has become increasingly anachronistic in favor of more contemporary terms such as graphic design and advertising art.Commercial art traditionally...
and graphic art
Graphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
and, while working in television set construction
Set construction
Set construction is the process by which a set designer works in collaboration with the director of a production to create the set for a theatrical, film or television production...
, heard of auditions for a new children's art programme. Speight was successful in his audition and became one of the first presenters of SMart
SMart
SMart was a British CBBC television programme based on the subject of art, which began in 1994. The programme was recorded at BBC Television Centre in London, previously it had been recorded in Studio A at BBC Pebble Mill in Birmingham. The format is similar to the Tony Hart programmes Take Hart...
, working on it for 14 years.
Speight was also a presenter on See It Saw It
See It Saw It
See It Saw It was a Children's BBC game show about a king who rules over the kingdom of "Much Jollity-On-The-Mirth". It ran from 6 January 1999 to 26 March 2001. The programme was filmed entirely in the studio with an audience of children who at various points in the show would be asked an...
, where he met his future fiancée Natasha Collins
Natasha Collins
Natasha Louise Collins was an English actress and model.-Career:Educated at St. Michael's Catholic Grammar School in Finchley, north London, she initially worked as a model, and was still represented by Ugly Rage Models at the time of her death...
. He took part in live events, such as Rolf on Art
Rolf on Art
Rolf on Art is a British Art television series made by the BBC. It was hosted by Rolf Harris, the Australian television presenter. The series began in 2001, and the most recent episode was made in 2007...
and his own Speight of the Art workshops for children. He was involved in charity work; he became the president of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign
Muscular Dystrophy Campaign
Muscular Dystrophy Campaign is a British medical research charity dedicated to the curing of the neurological condition muscular dystrophy. It was founded as the Muscular Dystrophy Group in 1959 and changed its name to the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign in 1999....
's Young Pavement Artists Competition, and was a spokesperson for ChildLine
ChildLine
ChildLine is a free 24 hour counselling service for children and young people up to 18 in the UK provided by the NSPCC. ChildLine deals with any issue which causes distress or concern, common issues dealt with include child abuse, bullying, parental separation or divorce, pregnancy and substance...
.
In January 2008, Speight found the body of Collins in the bath of their London flat. He was arrested on suspicion of her murder, but not charged with any offence. An inquest later determined Collins had died of a drug overdose and severe burns from hot water. In April, Speight was reported missing and committed suicide by hanging
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
himself near Paddington Station
Paddington station
Paddington railway station, also known as London Paddington, is a central London railway terminus and London Underground complex.The site is a historic one, having served as the London terminus of the Great Western Railway and its successors since 1838. Much of the current mainline station dates...
. Two suicide notes were discovered a few days later, describing how he could no longer live without Collins.
Early life
Speight was born in SeisdonSeisdon
Seisdon is a rural village in the county of Staffordshire approximately six miles west of Wolverhampton.-Etymology:The name appears to mean "hill of the Saxons", deriving from the Anglo-Saxon words Seis meaning Saxon and Dun meaning hill.-History:...
, Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
, and grew up in Tettenhall
Tettenhall
Tettenhall is a historic part of the city of Wolverhampton, England. The name Tettenhall is probably derived from Teotta's Halh, Teotta being a person's name and Halh being a sheltered position...
, Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands, England. For Eurostat purposes Walsall and Wolverhampton is a NUTS 3 region and is one of five boroughs or unitary districts that comprise the "West Midlands" NUTS 2 region...
. Speight had two siblings, Tina-Louise Richmond (née Speight), and Jason Speight. His father, Oliver Warwick Speight (born 1938 in Barton
Barton
Barton is an archaic English word meaning lands of the manor or meadow and may refer to several places or people:-Australia:* Barton, Australian Capital Territory, Canberra...
to Leonard George (1904–1992) Speight and Evelyn Ada (1899–1994) West), is a property developer, and his mother, Jacqueline Fordham Speight (née Parker), was an art teacher. Jacqueline died on 5 September 2008, aged 62, from a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
allegedly brought on by the stress of her son's death. Speight attended the independent school
Independent school (UK)
An independent school is a school that is not financed through the taxation system by local or national government and is instead funded by private sources, predominantly in the form of tuition charges, gifts and long-term charitable endowments, and so is not subject to the conditions imposed by...
Tettenhall College
Tettenhall College
Tettenhall College is a mixed independent school located in the Wolverhampton suburb of Tettenhall.-History:The College was founded in 1863 by a group of prominent local businessmen and industrialists, most of who were associated with the Queen Street Congregational Church. Tettenhall Towers was...
for a year, before moving to state comprehensive
Comprehensive school
A comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...
Regis School, now known as King's C.E. School, also in Tettenhall, at the age of 12. Speight stated in an interview he was a slow learner at school, with a short attention span, and art was a way for him to communicate. He said he did "very badly" because he was a victim of bullying, and the "daily ordeal for two years" forced him to become the "class joker". Speight left aged 16 and went on to attend Bilston
Bilston
Bilston is a town in the English county of West Midlands, situated in the southeastern corner of the City of Wolverhampton. Three wards of Wolverhampton City Council cover the town: Bilston East and Bilston North, which almost entirely comprise parts of the historic Borough of Bilston, and...
Art School, where he took a degree in commercial and graphic art.
Career
He intended to become a cartoonist, but Speight eventually became a presenter following a job painting the setSet construction
Set construction is the process by which a set designer works in collaboration with the director of a production to create the set for a theatrical, film or television production...
of a television production. He auditioned for SMart
SMart
SMart was a British CBBC television programme based on the subject of art, which began in 1994. The programme was recorded at BBC Television Centre in London, previously it had been recorded in Studio A at BBC Pebble Mill in Birmingham. The format is similar to the Tony Hart programmes Take Hart...
, and following a successful interview where he met future co-presenter Jay Burridge
Jay Burridge
Jay Jay Burridge also known as Jay Burridge is an artist and former television presenter. He fronted the BBC children's art programme SMart from 1994 until 2003, when he left and became a graphic designer and snowboard inventor...
, he went on to present SMart from its first edition in 1994. Speight became close friends with Burridge, whose art studio in West London was used to create all of the art content for SMart; Burridge noted: "We would bounce ideas and jokes off each other all day until we had developed an almost telepathically linked knowledge of what made each other laugh." Speight and Burridge were joined by third presenter Zoë Ball
Zoë Ball
Zoë Louise Ball is an English television and radio personality, most famous for becoming the first female host of the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show and for her earlier work presenting the 1990s children's show, Live & Kicking.-TV career:The daughter of the children's TV presenter Johnny Ball and his...
, who was replaced first by Josie D'Arby
Josie D'Arby
Josie d'Arby is a Welsh actress and television presenter from Newport, Wales.-Biography:d'Arby went to Lliswerry High School in her younger years then went on to attend the Anna Scher Theatre School, and later the London School of Journalism.d'Arby began a presenting career while still a student...
, and then Kirsten O'Brien
Kirsten O'Brien
Kirsten O'Brien is an English television presenter and stand-up comic.She is known for presenting SMart, and presented Smile and Totally Doctor Who alongside Barney Harwood on CBBC....
. With Burridge and O'Brien, Speight presented the spin-off shows SMarteenies
SMarteenies
SMarteenies was a spin-off of the children's art programme SMart designed for pre-school viewers. It was shown on the CBeebies channel daily until its suspension in January 2008, following the death of presenter Mark Speight's fiancée Natasha Collins, and his subsequent suicide.The programme...
and SMart on the Road, and participated in various live events. He achieved further fame while starring in the BAFTA-nominated ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
Saturday morning show Scratchy & Co.
Scratchy & Co.
Scratchy and Co was a CITV show, which was broadcast at certain periods from 6 May 1995 to 25 April 1998, which replaced What's Up Doc? as the Saturday morning ITV show.-Premise:...
from 1995 until 1998.
Speight worked on numerous other shows, ranging from children's television to adult factual programmes. His children's television credits include playing the Abominable No Man in Timmy Mallett
Timmy Mallett
Timmy Mallett is a TV presenter and broadcaster in the UK. He achieved cult status on BBC Radio Oxford and Manchester's Piccadilly Radio and later on TV-am...
's Timmy Towers and presenting Beat the Cyborgs, Name That Toon, On Your Marks, Insides Out
Insides Out
Insides Out is a children's television game show. Its theme was the human body, and involved games that included body parts. A total of thirty episodes were made over two series, lasting from 15 September 1999 to 22 December 2000. It was presented by Mark Speight and Marsali Stewart, with...
, and History Busters, the last of which won a Royal Television Society
Royal Television Society
The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...
Award. Speight also worked on This Morning
This Morning (TV series)
This Morning is a British daytime television programme broadcast on ITV. As of September 2011, its main presenters are Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby, and Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes, with various other presenters standing in for illness or contributing to sections of the programme.The...
, The Heaven and Earth Show
The Heaven and Earth Show
The Heaven and Earth Show was a BBC television programme that aired on Sunday mornings from 10am to 11am on BBC One. The show ran for nine years between 1998 and 2007, looking at spiritual and moral issues...
, The Big Breakfast
The Big Breakfast
The Big Breakfast was a British light entertainment television show shown on Channel 4 and S4C each weekday morning from 28 September 1992 until 29 March 2002 during which period 2,482 shows were produced. The Big Breakfast was produced by Planet 24, the production company co-owned by former...
and was a contestant in ITV's Celebrity Wrestling
Celebrity Wrestling
Celebrity Wrestling is a British television programme, broadcast on ITV in 2005. It involved two teams of celebrities, competing against each other in wrestling style events. The series was presented by Kate Thornton and Rowdy Roddy Piper...
. Speight also played the king on children's programme See It Saw It
See It Saw It
See It Saw It was a Children's BBC game show about a king who rules over the kingdom of "Much Jollity-On-The-Mirth". It ran from 6 January 1999 to 26 March 2001. The programme was filmed entirely in the studio with an audience of children who at various points in the show would be asked an...
, where he met Natasha Collins
Natasha Collins
Natasha Louise Collins was an English actress and model.-Career:Educated at St. Michael's Catholic Grammar School in Finchley, north London, she initially worked as a model, and was still represented by Ugly Rage Models at the time of her death...
. Collins was seriously injured after being hit by a car in 2001, and had to leave See It Saw It. Speight began dating her in 2003, and they became engaged in Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
in 2005. They planned to get married in fancy dress and Speight joked that the wedding might feature monkeys, his favourite animal.
In 2004, Speight participated in Rolf Harris
Rolf Harris
Rolf Harris, CBE, AM is an Australian musician, singer-songwriter, composer, painter and television personality.Born in Perth, Western Australia, Harris was a champion swimmer before studying art. He moved to England in 1952, where he started to appear on television programmes on which he drew the...
's Rolf on Art
Rolf on Art
Rolf on Art is a British Art television series made by the BBC. It was hosted by Rolf Harris, the Australian television presenter. The series began in 2001, and the most recent episode was made in 2007...
, for which a giant reproduction of John Constable
John Constable
John Constable was an English Romantic painter. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home—now known as "Constable Country"—which he invested with an intensity of affection...
's The Hay Wain
The Hay Wain
The Hay Wain is a painting by John Constable, finished in 1821. The painting depicts a rural scene on the River Stour in Suffolk. It hangs in the National Gallery London, and is regarded as one of the greatest British paintings.-Description:...
was created in Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is a public space and tourist attraction in central London, England, United Kingdom. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of statues and sculptures in the square, with one plinth displaying changing pieces of...
. In 2005, he was involved in a similar project where Hans Holbein
Hans Holbein the Younger
Hans Holbein the Younger was a German artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known as one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He also produced religious art, satire and Reformation propaganda, and made a significant contribution to the history...
's portrait of Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
and Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
's Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa is a portrait by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci. It is a painting in oil on a poplar panel, completed circa 1503–1519...
were both reconstructed, the latter in the grounds of Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle is a fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear...
. Speight had planned a project involving a trip to Borneo
Borneo
Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
in March 2008 to train abused orangutan
Orangutan
Orangutans are the only exclusively Asian genus of extant great ape. The largest living arboreal animals, they have proportionally longer arms than the other, more terrestrial, great apes. They are among the most intelligent primates and use a variety of sophisticated tools, also making sleeping...
s not to fight each other, but this never took place. Speight regularly toured with Speight of the Art, a series of art workshops he ran for children, and during the Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
period, he became involved in pantomime
Pantomime
Pantomime — not to be confused with a mime artist, a theatrical performer of mime—is a musical-comedy theatrical production traditionally found in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Jamaica, South Africa, India, Ireland, Gibraltar and Malta, and is mostly performed during the...
, performing as "Buttons" in Cinderella at the Watersmeet, Rickmansworth
Rickmansworth
Rickmansworth is a town in the Three Rivers district of Hertfordshire, England, 4¼ miles west of Watford.The town has a population of around 15,000 people and lies on the Grand Union Canal and the River Colne, at the northern end of the Colne Valley regional park.Rickmansworth is a small town in...
in December 2007.
Speight was involved in charity work. He was President of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign
Muscular Dystrophy Campaign
Muscular Dystrophy Campaign is a British medical research charity dedicated to the curing of the neurological condition muscular dystrophy. It was founded as the Muscular Dystrophy Group in 1959 and changed its name to the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign in 1999....
's Young Pavement Artists Competition, originally a one-off year-long project that ended up lasting eight years, and he was a spokesperson for ChildLine
ChildLine
ChildLine is a free 24 hour counselling service for children and young people up to 18 in the UK provided by the NSPCC. ChildLine deals with any issue which causes distress or concern, common issues dealt with include child abuse, bullying, parental separation or divorce, pregnancy and substance...
. In 2007, he was the presenter of the Müller Big Art Project for Comic Relief
Comic Relief
Comic Relief is an operating British charity, founded in 1985 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Lenny Henry in response to famine in Ethiopia. The highlight of Comic Relief's appeal is Red Nose Day, a biennial telethon held in March, alternating with sister project Sport Relief...
in Trafalgar Square.
Arrest and disappearance
On the afternoon of 3 January 2008, Speight called emergency services after waking up to discover Natasha Collins's body in the bath of their St John's WoodSt John's Wood
St John's Wood is a district of north-west London, England, in the City of Westminster, and at the north-west end of Regent's Park. It is approximately 2.5 miles north-west of Charing Cross. Once part of the Great Middlesex Forest, it was later owned by the Knights of St John of Jerusalem...
flat, in northwest London. Speight told police that he and Collins had spent the previous evening "partying", drinking wine and vodka, and taking cocaine and sleeping pills. Speight was questioned by police since he was the only other person living in the flat, and was subsequently arrested on suspicion of murder and of supplying class A drugs, but was released on bail until the first week of February. Because of this, the BBC cancelled the Saturday repeat edition of SMart. An inquest, which opened on 8 January 2008, heard that the death was not thought to be suspicious but should be "subject to further investigation". At that point, police were awaiting results of toxicology
Toxicology
Toxicology is a branch of biology, chemistry, and medicine concerned with the study of the adverse effects of chemicals on living organisms...
tests after a postmortem examination was inconclusive. The BBC cancelled repeat broadcasts of SMart and SMarteenies until further notice, and on 28 February Speight announced he was quitting SMart, because the "tragic loss" of Collins had left him unable to continue with the show. Speight denied any involvement with Collins's death, and on 19 March it was reported that the police were no longer considering Speight as a suspect.
In April 2008, the coroner recorded a verdict of death by misadventure in relation to Collins. The cause of death was "cocaine toxicity and immersion in hot water", according to the consultant pathologist. 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, including her tongue. 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. Following Collins's death, Speight moved in with Collins's mother.
Speight planned to meet with Collins's mother at Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
for a coffee on the afternoon of 7 April. He was dropped off at Wood Green tube station
Wood Green tube station
Wood Green is a London Underground station on the Piccadilly Line. The station is between Turnpike Lane and Bounds Green stations and is in Travelcard Zone 3. It is located at junction of Wood Green High Road and Lordship Lane...
that morning, but never showed up to meet her. Speight missed an appointment with a counsellor, but this was because of confusion over dates. Two police officers spoke to him, as he appeared "vacant", "distracted" and "deep in thought", but he refused their help. He was captured on CCTV in the afternoon taking money from a cash machine
Automated teller machine
An automated teller machine or automatic teller machine, also known as a Cashpoint , cash machine or sometimes a hole in the wall in British English, is a computerised telecommunications device that provides the clients of a financial institution with access to financial transactions in a public...
at Queen's Park station
Queen's Park station
Queen's Park station is a station served by London Underground and London Overground. It is in West Kilburn at the southern end of Salusbury Road, near the public park from which it takes its name...
, and he subsequently boarded a southbound Bakerloo line
Bakerloo Line
The Bakerloo line is a line of the London Underground, coloured brown on the Tube map. It runs partly on the surface and partly at deep level, from Elephant and Castle in the south-east to Harrow & Wealdstone in the north-west of London. The line serves 25 stations, of which 15 are underground...
train. He was reported missing the following day by family and friends, and his mother and the mother of Natasha Collins made a public appeal in which they urged him to make contact. Speight's father also appealed for him to get in touch.
Death and legacy
On 13 April, Speight's body was discovered hangingHanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
from the roof of MacMillan House, adjacent to London's Paddington Station, hidden from public view, six days after he died. The discovery was made by railway workers at 10:00 am, and British Transport Police
British Transport Police
The British Transport Police is a special police force that polices those railways and light-rail systems in Great Britain for which it has entered into an agreement to provide such services...
confirmed that the body was Speight's on 14 April 2008. An inquest into his death opened on 16 April 2008, and a post-mortem confirmed the cause of death as hanging
Hanging
Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...
. It was then adjourned until 20 May. The police said Speight may have used a sixth floor fire exit to get to the area where he was found.
The report of Speight's death on the BBC's children's news programme Newsround
Newsround
Newsround is a BBC children's news programme, which has run continuously since 4 April 1972, and was one of the world's first television news magazines aimed specifically at children...
provoked complaints that it upset young viewers. The BBC decided to avoid using the word "suicide," and instead Newsround reported that "police don't think he was killed by another person."
Speight's funeral was held on 28 April at St Michael and All Angels Church in Tettenhall, and hundreds went to pay their respects. The service included a performance by the choir from Tettenhall College, Speight's former school, and his coffin was carried out of the church accompanied by the theme tune of SMart. In May, the inquest resumed and determined that Speight was deeply depressed from his fiancee's death. He had first tried to hang himself with his belt, which was found snapped in his pocket, and had ended up hanging himself with his shoelaces; it was also disclosed that suicide notes had been found, one in his left pocket, and one addressed to his parents in his diary at his home. The notes described how he could not "contemplate life without [Collins]". The coroner Dr Paul Knapman
Paul Knapman
Dr Paul Knapman was Her Majesty’s Coroner for the central London Borough of Westminster, from 1980 to 2011. He was made Deputy Lieutenant of Greater London in 2008...
said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death. In May 2008, Speight's father created a foundation, Speight Of The Art, or SP8 Of The Art, and launched it at a memorial service which took place on what would have been his 43rd birthday, 6 August 2008 at St Paul's Church
St Paul's, Covent Garden
St Paul's Church, also commonly known as the Actors' Church, is a church designed by Inigo Jones as part of a commission by Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford in 1631 to create "houses and buildings fitt for the habitacons of Gentlemen and men of ability" in Covent Garden, London, England.As well...
in Covent Garden, London.
External links
- Mark Speight at Billy Marsh Associates
- Mark Speight at TV.comTV.comTV.com is a website owned by CBS Interactive. The site covers television and focuses on English-language shows made or broadcast in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Japan...
- Speight of the Art Foundation
- In pictures: Mark Speight at bbc.co.ukBbc.co.ukBBC Online is the brand name and home for the BBC's UK online service. It is a large network of websites including such high profile sites as BBC News and Sport, the on-demand video and radio services co-branded BBC iPlayer, the pre-school site Cbeebies, and learning services such as Bitesize...