Leaving Swindon
Working class lad, Mark was born Mark Jones in Swindon on 7th January 1967. He grew up with three elder sisters and got five O'Levels before quitting school at 17. After he wrote a poem, "'I'm the James Dean of the dole queue" in 1987 his career started as a stand up comedian. Although he originally aimed to "hang about" on the dole, he saw Harry Enfield get his own series after a free open mike gig and was inspired. "I had no plans at all and even when I started doing OK on the stand-up circuit, I didn't think I could make a living at it. I used to have to ring up to get gigs in the back rooms of pubs that I wasn't even paid for. Then... Harry had his own series and I realised there might be money there after all."

TV beckons
Spotted on the circuit, he was recruited for the launch of Channel Four's Big Breakfast in 1992. Next up was the infamous Channel 4 'yoof' show The Word. Mark went on to work on Edinburgh Nights, Top of the Pops, The Late Show and Mark Lamarr Leaving the 20th Century. He's also had radio shows on BBC GLR, Radio 1 and Radio 5 Live. He became a household face thanks to his part as the grumpy compere in Shooting Stars and sarcastic host of Never Mind The Buzzcocks.

Once a stand up...
Although he is best known for his TV presenting, Mark started out on stage as a stand up. " I'm a stand up and it is what I do for a living, even though most of my work is on television these days, I never think, "I'm a TV person". If I ever thought that for a second I would top myself. A lot of people ask me this, but it is my job. This is what I am doing here and I do love doing it, or obviously I wouldn't be here."
He admits: "I never particularly wanted to be on TV or anything, it just sort of happened and I still don't really, but people keep on offering me really good job like 'Shooting Stars.'" He does say though that he enjoyed NMTB best: "I am really looking forward to it. Before I did Buzzcocks I didn't really like doing TV, I only did it for the money."

That hair
Mark gets a lot of aggravation about his 50's throwback quiff. The ubiquitous trademark do has been there since he started his rockabilly love affair as a teen. "My hair has been like this since I was sixteen, I am always shocked how cynical people are, they always come up to me and say: "God, your hair is like that in real life," as if I have a separate TV head."

Grease in The Word
The Word was revolutionary in the early nineties and legends about the back stage antics survive to this day. Aside from the high drama with the guests, rumour has it that a serious feud between Lamarr and Terry Christian was settled with a fight and a solicitor's letter. The show gave Mark his TV breakthrough but also was a depressing experience. Sat on his fluorescent couch Mark became an overnight TV star for the nation rather than the stand up comedian he had been working to be. "It was a show that conferred immediate celebrity status. It's terrifying to be under that much scrutiny and to be pretty awful. I really tried hard to be intelligent, but no matter how much you fought against it, it was still The Word."

Hammer time
When asked what his favourite TV moment was he remembers his encounter with MC Hammer."... on 'The Word'. I enjoyed the MC Hammer interview, that was good fun. He was trying to change his image from twat Hammer to gangster and he was obviously just some rap charlatan. So I came on in all this Hammer gear and danced in front of him. He was really pissed off. Then every time I asked him a question, just before he answered it, I'd go "Stop. It's hammer time". Twice would have been funny, but we did it six or seven times in a row and he was fuming. So that was a fun one."

Be mean keep'em keen?
Mark has been known to let rip and tell the world what he think of his enemies. Here are three classics:
On Chris Evans: " I could just say he is a ginger-headed bastard!"
On Lenny from Motorhead: " Lenny thought he was a really funny man, but when he came on he couldn't keep up. He stormed off but only after we had actually finished and we'd all left. I think he felt a bit embarrassed the next day and put out a press release saying it was sexist, but that was his excuse for not being very good."
On Chris Moyles: "That fat pig. I'd like to rip the apple out of his mouth and f***ing slap him."

Did you know?

Cartoon character: Yosemite Sam.

Favourite gadget: Dictaphone "because you can talk into it and play back what you have just said."

Worse TV Shows: Richard and Judy and So Graham Norton.

Musical instrument: The harmonica.

Dream guests on NMTB: Van Morrison, Morrissey, the guy from Joy Division who killed himself and Enya.

Hobby: beehives in his garden.

Best Band: Public Enemy, though he's really into obscure rock'n'roll

Record collection: 10.000 albums.

Sexiest song: Elvis Blue Moon

Comedy hero: Alexei Sayle

Best thing about TV: Kissing Ulrika every night