Mark Clifford Thomas (born 1963) is an English comedian, presenter and reporter from south London. He first came to light as a support comic on the BBC Radio 1 comedy show The Mary Whitehouse Experience in the late 1980s.

Biography

---

Prior to his most renowned vehicle, The Mark Thomas Comedy Product, Thomas was the resident stand-up comic on Saturday Zoo, a Channel 4 comedy series first screened in 1993. He also presented the highly successful BBC Radio 1 talk show Loose Talk and is also a founder member of the London Comedy Store's hard hitting Cutting Edge show.

His political comedy shows, The Mark Thomas Comedy Product and The Mark Thomas Product on Channel 4 earned him criticism from politicians but were seen by critics as a crucial investigative tool. Leaving Channel 4 was a mutual decision, following a series of disputes over how far the channel would go in its broadcasting, one of which concerned the channel's reluctance to support actions concerning corporate accountability and corporate manslaughter laws - a cause he had campaigned for - which coincided with the Queen Mother's funeral.

Thomas has appeared at numerous comedy benefit nights, and is a well established stand up comedian in the UK. He is the Chairman of the Ilısu Dam Campaign, a campaign which was successful in temporarily blocking the development of a large-scale hydroelectric dam in southeast Turkey that campaigners claim will lead to the displacement of up to 78,000 people, mostly Kurds, without adequate compensation or consultation, as well as to environmental and cultural destruction.

Recently Thomas has been working with War On Want in India and investigating and filming human rights violations in Colombia (by, amongst others, Coca-cola ^*) where trade unions are targeted by militia allegedly controlled by the government. He continues to write a column for the New Statesman.

Thomas is married with a son and daughter called Charlie and Izzy.

A recent picture shows Thomas perched sitting on the leg of a statue of comedian Eric Morecambe, apparently one of his comedy heroes.

Television programmes featuring Mark Thomas

---

• Dispatches: After School Arms Club (2006)
• Mark Thomas Comedy Product (later renamed The Mark Thomas Product) (1996-2000)
• Thomas Country (1999)
• Secret Map of Britain (2002)
• Mark Thomas: Debt Collector (2003)
• Mark Thomas: Weapons Inspector (2003)

Discography

---

• Live (1998)
• Dambusters (2001)
• The Night War Broke Out (2004)

Trivia

---

• He gave out the mobile phone number of former MI5 Agent David Shayler at a demonstration at the US spybase Menwith Hill in February 2001.

See also

---

• Southeastern Anatolia Project

External links

---

• Mark Thomas Product "The 'unofficially official' repository of all things Mark Thomas."
• The Mark Thomas Product unofficial fan page
• markthomasinfo.com "The 'officially official' Mark Thomas info site (new)."
• Mark Thomas: Taking comedy seriously BBC profile
• Mark Thomas: method and madness of a TV comic interview in the UNESCO publication The New Courier
• Mark Thomas Alive: An online video about COKE.

1963 births | Activists | English comedians | British journalists | Living people