View Full Version : RIP Mark Speight


lucifers angel
04-14-08, 03:23 PM
I used to watch this guy on TV with my son, he was one of the few people who could keep my sons attention, and i am sorry to hear about his suicide!!

Mark R.I.P

here is a bit about him:

Biography
Speight was born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire in 1965, and grew up in Wolverhampton, West Midlands. Speight briefly attended Tettenhall College and later Regis Comprehensive school (now King's Church of England School, Wolverhampton), and left school aged 16.[2]

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Television
After a degree in commercial and graphic art Speight made his entry into television presenting after hearing about auditions for SMart while working on the set of a television production.[3] He went on to present SMart with various co-presenters from its start in 1994 until 2008. He achieved further fame while starring in BAFTA-nominated ITV Saturday morning show Scratchy & Co. in the mid 1990s.[4]

Speight worked on numerous other shows, ranging from children's television to adult factual programmes. Mark played the Abominable No Man in Timmy Mallett's Timmy Towers. He hosted the series Beat the Cyborgs, See It Saw It, SMarteenies and, for Discovery Kids, History Busters, which won a Royal Television Society Award,[5] made appearances on Blue Peter, The Saturday Show, This Morning and The Heaven and Earth Show, and was also a contestant in ITV's Celebrity Wrestling.[6]

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Arrest and disappearance
On the morning of 3 January 2008, Speight called emergency services having discovered the body of his fiancée and former See It Saw It colleague in the bath of their London flat.[8] Speight told police that he and Collins had spent the previous evening "partying" and had taken cocaine and sleeping pills, wine and vodka.[9] Speight was subsequently arrested on suspicion of murder and of supplying class A drugs and released on bail.[8] An inquest into the death, which opened on 8 January 2008, heard that that death was not thought to be suspicious, but that it should be "subject to further investigation".[10] At that point, police were awaiting results of toxicology tests after a postmortem examination proved inconclusive.[11] Speight denied any involvement with Collins's death,[12] and on 19 March 2008 it was reported that no further police action would be taken.[13] The BBC cancelled repeat broadcasts of SMart and SMarteenies until further notice,[11] and on 28 February 2008 Speight announced he was quitting the programme Smart,[14] because the "tragic loss" of Collins had left him unable to continue with the show.[8].

In April 2008, the coroner recorded a verdict of "death by misadventure" in the case of Collins' death. 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.[13] The pathologist gave the cause of death as cocaine toxicity and immersion in hot water. 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.[9]

On 8 April 2008, Speight was reported missing by family and friends after failing to attend a meeting on the afternoon of 7 April. He had been dropped off at Wood Green tube station, London in the morning,[8] and last seen in the afternoon boarding a southbound Bakerloo line train from Queen's Park station.[15] On 8 April, both his mother and the mother of Natasha Collins made a public appeal in which they urged him to make contact.[16] Speight's father has also appealed for him to get in touch.[17] Police confirmed that they had spoken to Speight on the day of his disappearance, saying he appeared "distracted". Speight reportedly refused all offers of help when approached by police.[18]

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Death
On 14 April 2008 the British Transport Police confirmed the body of a man found hanged from MacMillan House, adjacent to Paddington Station, on the morning of the previous day was that of Mark Speight.[19][20] The body has yet to be formally identified but a post-mortem is due to take place on 15 April[21] and an inquest will open on 16 April. The police added that investigations into CCTV footage at the station were continuing.[citation needed]

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i know many of you wont even know who he is, but he will be missed y thousands of young children! He made them smile:

But the sad thing is, this is yet anouther reason why HARD drugs are not the happy, recreational things people seem to think they are!

Also i do have a question:

is it possible for someone to be so, high on drugs, sleeping pills. and drink, to not notice how hot water is? his fiancce was found dead with 60 degree burns because of hot water!

http://img.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/04_01/mark0504_468x341.jpg

draqon
04-14-08, 03:39 PM
suicide...my guess is drugs

lucifers angel
04-14-08, 03:56 PM
suicide...my guess is drugs

well yeah, both his and natasha were known for taking drugs and in fact that is how she died!!

suicide is a good guess, seeing that he was found hanging in a train station!

draqon
04-14-08, 03:59 PM
people who commited suicide have failed the lesson of life...please reconsider your appraisal of such individuals, because even though their actions are appealing, it is what they did that lead to such horrific turn of events.

lucifers angel
04-14-08, 04:01 PM
people who commited suicide have failed the lesson of life...please reconsider your appraisal of such individuals, because even though their actions are appealing, it is what they did that lead to such horrific turn of events.


he was suffering because of the death of his GF, and to be toally honest i will admit that i agree with you in a way!

but he was ill and he needed help not to be found hanging from a short rope

Asguard
04-15-08, 12:35 AM
im sorry to both of you but depression is no more the fault of the person suffering it than being raped is the fault of the victom. Its a mental illness which is like being traped in a dark soundless room day after day with no end. The best physical way to descibe it would be to suggest you ask to be locked in solutry confinment for an unlimited amout of time with no control over when or if it ends.

When i was depressed i would have given anything to be ANGRY because that would have ment i could feel SOMETHING. I eventually tried to comit suicide and was found and have gone on to meet someone who can actually make me feel but before that there was nothing. Even now i can slip back into it and it will be something i have to deal with everyday for the rest of my life. Every day i wake up and try to find a reason to feel.

lucifers angel
04-15-08, 04:06 AM
im sorry to both of you but depression is no more the fault of the person suffering it than being raped is the fault of the victom. Its a mental illness which is like being traped in a dark soundless room day after day with no end. The best physical way to descibe it would be to suggest you ask to be locked in solutry confinment for an unlimited amout of time with no control over when or if it ends.

When i was depressed i would have given anything to be ANGRY because that would have ment i could feel SOMETHING. I eventually tried to comit suicide and was found and have gone on to meet someone who can actually make me feel but before that there was nothing. Even now i can slip back into it and it will be something i have to deal with everyday for the rest of my life. Every day i wake up and try to find a reason to feel.

real depression is not somthing that you can decide one day you will not suffer from, real depression is an actaul illness, and sometimes people who suffer from real depression and not this new wave of emo depression (where its fashionable to be on medication for depression) can't do anything for themselves, that people who dont suffer from it take for granted, i.e waking up in the morning, sleeping, looking after yourself,and people who dont suffer from it dont realise just how bad it can be

phlogistician
04-15-08, 08:01 AM
One less junkie loser who was supposedly fit to broadcast to children. Good riddance.

Ghost_007
04-15-08, 08:02 AM
A real tragedy.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/2008/04/15/smart-co-host-kirsten-o-brien-s-sadness-for-kids-tv-star-mark-speight-89520-20383589/

It emerged Mark had told friends he wanted to be reunited with Natasha. A pal revealed: "He told us the only thing getting him through was that one day he would be reunited with her in the afterlife.

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The children's TV presenter had been in turmoil since his fiancee Natasha Collins, 31, died in a scalding bath after a drugs and booze binge in January. Mark, 42, vanished five days after Natasha's inquest heard she snorted cocaine and downed wine and vodka before she died at their flat in St John's Wood, North London.

Ghost_007
04-15-08, 08:04 AM
One less junkie loser who was supposedly fit to broadcast to children. Good riddance.


A bit harsh don't you think?

I wouldn't call him a junkie or a loser. He was a brilliant presenter and will be missed.

Orleander
04-15-08, 08:23 AM
wasn't he the one who was supplying her with the drugs?

lucifers angel
04-15-08, 08:43 AM
wasn't he the one who was supplying her with the drugs?


we're not sure about that, a lot of news reports said yes he did supply, but the others say no, i guess we'll never know for sure

Orleander
04-15-08, 08:45 AM
reminds me of Michael Hutchence/Paula Yates deaths.

phlogistician
04-15-08, 10:42 AM
A bit harsh don't you think?

I wouldn't call him a junkie or a loser. He was a brilliant presenter and will be missed.

He and his partner took drugs, and those drugs lost her her life, and utlimately him, his. That makes him a junkie loser. At least he set kids a good example of what being a junkie loser leads to though.

Joaquin
04-15-08, 05:16 PM
I think he was obviously extremely depressed and if you're in that state of mind you're decision making cant be very good. It's really sad i think. I think he shouldve thought about his family but obviously he was in a wreckless position in his life and didnt think about his parents. I mean he wouldve got through this and eventually got his career on the go again.

TheCareTaker
04-15-08, 05:17 PM
Stupidity
there is no cure for it

Orleander
04-15-08, 05:25 PM
Who was this guy anyways? Was he like PeeWee Herman or Capt Kangaroo?

Joaquin
04-15-08, 05:31 PM
He wasnt really known much at all in the usa and even here he's not very well known. I remember him being a statue the most though on art attack when i was a kid. I always thought he had a good nature with children. It's tragic but these things happen. He shouldve moved on instead of taking drastic measures to end his life. He couldve continued with his children's tv presenting or found work in television and maybe have found another girlfriend.