name	Mark Speight
birthname
birth date	August 06, 1965
birth place	Seisdon, Staffordshire, England
death date
death place	London, England
death cause	Suicide by Hanging
education	Tettenhall CollegeRegis School
nationality	British
ethnicity	White British
employer	BBC
television	''SMart''''See It Saw It
occupation	Broadcaster
years active	1994–2008
partner
parents	Oliver and Jacqueline Speight }}

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.

Early life

Speight was born in Seisdon, 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.

Career

He intended to become a cartoonist, but Speight eventually became a presenter following a job painting the set 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 orangutans 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.

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 Wood 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 her 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.

Death and legacy

On 13 April, Speight's body was discovered hanging 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.

References

External links

Mark Speight at Billy Marsh Associates

Mark Speight at TV.com

Speight of the Art Foundation

In pictures: Mark Speight at bbc.co.uk

Category:1965 births Category:2008 deaths Category:British television presenters Category:People from Wolverhampton Category:English television personalities Category:Suicides by hanging in England Category:Suicides in London Category:Television personalities who committed suicide Category:People educated at Tettenhall College

cy:Mark Speight nl:Mark Speight pl:Mark Speight simple:Mark Speight

name	Natasha Collins
birthname	Natasha Louise Collins
birth date	July 07, 1976
birth place	Luton, Bedfordshire, England
death date	January 03, 2008
death place	St John's Wood, London, England
death cause	Drug Overdose
occupation	Model, actress
yearsactive	1998 - 2001
domesticpartner	Mark Speight (2005–08) }}

Natasha Louise Collins (7 July 1976 – 3 January 2008) 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 first appeared on TV in the Brechin Productions children's show ''See It, Saw It'', in which she played See, one of two court jesters in the court of the King, played by Mark Speight. Trying to break into more adult television, she later appeared in Hallmark/NBC's ''The Tenth Kingdom'' and ITV1's ''Real Women''. She also featured in a small number of episodes of the BBC emergency services programme 999 Lifesavers and one episode of the popular children's TV series Chucklevision as the ''Spanish Princess''. She also worked in film and theatre, as well as presenting corporate videos.

In 2001 Collins was cast in a main role in the Channel 4 show ''Hollyoaks'', but later the same day was involved in a serious car accident, which left her in a coma and hospitalised for a long period of time. The incident left her with seizures that curtailed her career. Whilst recovering she began dating Speight, and the couple became engaged in Barbados in 2005.

Death

At 1:20 pm on 3 January 2008 police were called to the North West London home of Collins and Speight, where Collins was found dead in a bath. Speight was arrested on suspicion of murder and supplying class A drugs, and was bailed to return to the police station for questioning in early February.

The subsequent postmortem examination proved to be inconclusive, requiring additional toxicology tests. The inquest opened on 8 January 2008 heard that the death was not thought to be suspicious, but that it was "subject to further investigation". On 2 April 2008, the coroner recorded a verdict of death by misadventure after Collins was found with scalds covering about 60% of her body and a "'very significant' amount of cocaine in her system at the time". Speight had been arrested immediately following Collins's death, but was not charged with any offence. Mark Speight later committed suicide, and his body was found by police in the roof of MacMillan House next to London's Paddington railway station on 13 April 2008. He was said to have killed himself because he could not cope with the grief of Collins dying.

References

External links

Category:British television presenters Category:1976 births Category:2008 deaths Category:Drug-related deaths in England Category:People educated at St. Michael's Catholic Grammar School

nl:Natasha Collins pl:Natasha Collins