Early Career
Mark is a Yorkshireman and the third child of Arthur Curry, a Physical Training Instructor and Prison Officer who died when Mark was five years old. His mother, Lily, was a maternity nurse. He grew up in the mining village of Allerton Bywater and his television career began aged seven, after auditioning for Jess Yates, the executive producer of Yorkshire Television's, "Junior Showtime". He was a regular performer on the show from 1969 to 1974. Alan Parker cast Mark as, "Oscar", the producer, in the film Bugsy Malone (1976). He attended the Jean Pearce School of Dancing in Leeds throughout the early '70's. name="BBCbio">BBC - I Love Blue Peter - Mark Curry presenter biography, bbc.co.uk In the late 1970's, Mark presented a Saturday morning TV show for Yorkshire Television, shown locally and was a main character in a six episode comedy/drama series about brass bands, "Sounding Brass", for ATV, also featuring Brian Glover, Phillip Jackson and Gwen Taylor. Mark joined the Harrogate Theatre Company and appeared in several plays over three years in the early 1980s. In 1981, Curry co-hosted the series Get Set For Summer on BBC1 with main host Peter Powell and Lucie Skeaping. The series returned the following year as Get Set but eventually became The Saturday Picture Show with Curry as main host, running until 1986. Curry's co-hosts over the years included Deborah Appleby, Maggie Philbin and Cheryl Baker.
In 1984 he was the question master on the final series of Screen Test, the BBC's cinematic quiz show for children. He was asked to join Blue Peter in 1986, ( see below). After leaving Blue Peter, Mark was offered another BBC 1 Saturday morning show but turned it down, feeling that he had done everything he wanted to do in children's television.
In the 90's and early 2000's, Curry played the role of a TV host in the ITV drama London's Burning. He appeared in an episode of the BBC comedy series, "Bread", and when Roy Castle became ill during the late 90's, Mark was asked to co present, "Record Breakers", for the BBC. In 1994 he took over one of the two leading roles in, "The Woman In Black", at the Fortune Theatre in London and previously had played, " Lord Fancourt Babberley", in the official centenary production of, "Charley's Aunt", as well as touring the UK in productions of, "Move Over Mrs.Markham", "Noises Off", "Billy Liar" and "Far From The Madding Crowd". At the Library Theatre in Manchester, he got soaking wet each night in a production of, "Neville's Island" and got wet again playing, " Don Lockwood", in, "Singing In The Rain", at the Theatre Royal, Lincoln. Mark also made several stage appearances in Alan Ayckbourn plays at the Theatre Royal, Windsor and appeared in productions of, "London Suite" and "Tons Of Money", in UK touring productions for Bill Kenwright. He played opposite Jenny Seagrove in a new play called, "Appetite", which was premiered at Windsor. He has appeared in pantomimes all over the country on many occasions, ( his first was a television pantomime in 1972, "Babes In The Wood", starring Little and Large and Susan Maughan, at the Alhambra Theatre, Bradford, where he and Bonnie Langford were the two babes)
Mark took part in two Children's Royal Variety Performances and in the Queen Mother's 90th Birthday Gala at the London Palladium.
Read more about this topic: Mark Curry (television Presenter)
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