Mark Speight, missing presumed dead

[Swany]

The body of a man, believed to be missing TV presenter Mark Speight, has been found in a remote area of London's Paddington station, police have said.

Officers are treating the death as "unexplained" but have confirmed that the man had not been hit by a train.

Mr Speight, 42, disappeared last Monday, three months after the death of his fiancee, Natasha Collins, in the bath of the flat they shared in London.

Miss Collins' mother was devastated at the latest news, her spokeswoman said.

She asked for Carmen Collins to be given time to grieve in peace.

The BBC released a statement saying: "This is very sad news and our thoughts and sympathies are with Mark's family and friends.

"Mark was a hugely talented and very popular presenter for many years."

Video footage

The body of the man was found at about 1000 BST at the station.

Mr Speight's relatives have been informed of the discovery, police said, but a formal identification has yet to take place.


Mr Speight said in January he was "distraught" at Miss Collins' death

Video footage from CCTV cameras at the station is to be studied by officers as part of their investigation.

The presenter, who was the host of BBC children's show SMart until February, was reported missing last Monday when he failed to meet Miss Collins' mother as arranged.

He was recorded on a security camera entering Queen's Park underground station in north-west London.

Then, 22 minutes later, he boarded a train on the Bakerloo Line, which serves Paddington.

'Fragile state'

Relatives had made a number of appeals over the past few days, with his father, Oliver, urging him to get in touch and not to "give up" during his time of grief.

He was blessed with a remarkable personality, great artistic talents and the wonderful warm ability to communicate those skills with people, especially children of all ages

Jan Kennedy
Mark Speight's agent


The families of both Mr Speight and Miss Collins had issued a joint statement, expressing their "deep concern" and saying he had been in "a fragile state of mind" when he vanished.

A friend had also described how Mr Speight, originally from Wolverhampton, had been planning a concert as a tribute to his late fiancee, which would have raised money for one of her chosen charities.

Mr Speight, originally from Wolverhampton, had been arrested on suspicion of murder and supplying Class A drugs following the discovery of Miss Collins' body at their St John's Wood flat on 3 January.

No charges were brought, however.

She suffered burns on 60% of her body from boiling water and had suffered a drugs overdose after taking cocaine, sleeping pills and alcohol.

A coroner recorded a verdict of death by misadventure at an inquest earlier this month.


Police had released CCTV footage of Mr Speight at Queen's Park station

Speaking on behalf of Mr Speight's agent, Billy Marsh Associates, Jan Kennedy said the discovery of the body at Paddington had left the company "absolutely devastated".

"Caring and compassionate in everything he did, Mark was truly gifted in life and we are proud to have represented him as a friend and client for almost 20 years," she added.

"He was blessed with a remarkable personality, great artistic talents and the wonderful warm ability to communicate those skills with people, especially children of all ages.

"With his sensitivity of spirit, coupled with his dynamic presence and natural enthusiasm, he was loved and respected by his adoring family, friends and colleagues everywhere in the media," Ms Kennedy said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7345486.stm

[NightwatchersOnlygirl]

He will be missed by all

Rest In Peace Mark

[ZariusTwo]

You'll pay for this Neil Buchanan.

[Swany]

Everyone Probably already knows.

Mark Speight was one of the most recognisable faces on children's television for more than a decade.

His spiky blonde hair, rubbery features and enthusiastic grin was seen on programmes such as Scratchy and Co, See It Saw It and SMart.

But his world fell apart in January when he found fiancee Natasha Collins dead in the couple's north London flat.

"A part of me died with her," he later told reporters. "She was my soulmate and best friend rolled into one."

Mr Speight was born in 1965 - "when TV was black and white", according to his CBBC profile - and called Trowbridge, Wiltshire, his home.

He was educated at the private Tettenhall College before transferring to the comprehensive Regis School (now King's School) in Wolverhampton at the age of 12.

Turning up for his first day in a prefect's uniform and clutching a briefcase made him an attractive prospect for bullies, he said.

I really wanted to be a cartoonist and just stumbled into TV

Mark Speight

"I was an obvious target. I didn't know how to look after myself with all these big tough kids," he told the Birmingham Evening Mail in 2005.

Like many bullied children, he learned to use humour as a defence - "I became the class joker" - but decided to leave school at 16.

Art was his favourite subject, "because the art room was warm and the teacher was attractive", so he enrolled in college, gaining a degree in commercial and graphic art.

His subsequent career on television was, he claimed, nothing more than a happy accident.


Mr Speight and Rolf Harris collaborated on several occasions

"I really wanted to be a cartoonist and just stumbled into TV," he said in a recent interview.

"I was helping with a TV set and got wind of an audition for SMart."

SMart was his big break - a BBC children's programme that inherited Tony Hart's legacy of lessons in painting and handicraft.

The success of that show led Mr Speight to ITV, where he spent four years as host of the anarchic Saturday morning children's show Scratchy and Co.

Dressed in a sky-blue suit with a blonde rubber wig, Mr Speight became something of a cartoon himself, while introducing popular animated series such as Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain.

"I don't mind taking the mickey out of myself - the more stupid I look, the more I like it," he told the Daily Mirror in 1998.

His popularity led to many public appearances, notably with his Mr Speight of the Art children's workshops.

He also joined Rolf Harris in London's Trafalgar Square to help recreate Constable's painting The Haywain on a gigantic scale.


Mr Speight (centre) met Ms Collins (left) on the set of See It Saw It

That led to other live shows where Mr Speight helped create new versions of Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII and Da Vinci's Mona Lisa.

Mr Speight also became a spokesperson for ChildLine and raised money for Muscular Dystrophy.

In 1999, he was cast as the bumbling king of Much Jollity-On-The-Mirth in CBBC game show See It, Saw It.

It was on this programme that he met Natasha Collins, who played a court jester.

After he found her body in their bathroom earlier this year, Mr Speight became troubled and vulnerable, according to his family.

He was initially arrested on suspicion of murder and supplying Class A drugs, but last month Scotland Yard said he would not face any charges over the death.

An inquest into Ms Collins' death heard she had taken cocaine and sleeping tablets before apparently collapsing in the bath.

Mr Speight was reported missing a week after the coroner recorded a verdict of death by misadventure.

Presenter Kirsten O'Brien, who worked alongside Mr Speight on SMart, said he was "without doubt the funniest man I've ever known".

She said: "Filming days were a joy as Mark would often have the crew and I doubled up with laughter and I think that showed on screen.

"I'm proud to have had Mark in my life and am devastated at losing him in such a terrible way. All of his friends will miss him deeply.

"Mark could find light in the darkest situations for others. I'm only sorry he couldn't find it for himself."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7346112.stm

I will really miss this guy, he was one of my favorite TV presenters as a child. If not my favorite.