S. O. S. continued - Steel on Shops

Have recently been to see Mark Steel for the second time. I heard him on the radio when he went to Bungay (where I grew up) which was funny although doctored for radio. Stories of the Chicken Roundabout (it's on wikipedia, but now defunct, the roundabout is still there but the chickens have mysteriously disappeared after years of local fame and quite a few months of national fame followed the foul-pest scare), of Harry Potter manuscripts and the Bungay printing works.

Then I went to see him in Halesworth while I was living there. More local stories, and especially his curiosity as to how Halesworth had managed to avert Tescos, one of his main pet hates.Possibly his main pet hate. He tours the country with his 'stand up' with a local slant, searching out the quirks and oddities of the places he is visiting, and is a belligerent advocate for the individual quality and characteristic of each community. Having laughed til it hurt in Halesworth, I bought his book, named after his tour, Mark Steel's in Town, which I also enjoyed.(I really appreciate his column in the Indy).

Now I'm in the Norwich area, and I spotted he was coming to the Playhouse here, so despite a sellout of two performances (he usually only does one night in each place ) and an extra night's booking the following week, by turning up on the night I managed to get an unclaimed complimentary ticket. Some people obviously look gift horses in the mouth. Or not. Though obviously I had to pay for it, not being a member of the right set, whatever that was.

Alan Partridge didn't get a look in, perhaps too obvious, but Kett got a long mention, in addition to other revolutionary characters, plus the Puppet Man, who everyone but me seemed to have heard of. In my time, in a previous life in Norwich, it was Marigold, but he didn't crop up either. Anyway, a good time was had by all, Steel reckons that Norfolk people are very welcoming nowadays, now that the revolutionary spirit seems to have dwindled.

From his website:
'On the way to a show in Skipton, in North Yorkshire, I noticed a road sign to a town called Keighley. So later, during the show, I mentioned this, asking the audience, 'Is that your rival town?' And the room went chillingly quiet, until one woman called out with understated menace, 'Keighley is a sink of evil.'
Based on his award-winning BBC Radio 4 series, Mark Steel's In Town, is a celebration of the quirks of small-town life in a country of increasingly homogenised high streets. Steel's bespoke observations on the small, sometimes forgotten, towns of Britain go right to the heart of British culture today, championing the very people who shape the places we live in now.

http://www.marksteelinfo.com/Commentator and stand-up comedian Mark Steel has presented several radio and television programmes, and appeared on Have I Got News for You and Never Mind the Buzzcocks. In 2006 he published 'Vive La Revolution: A Stand-up History of the French Revolution', and in 2000 stood as a candidate in the London Assembly elections.