Mark Steel's In Town - Margate

“...a nice spot not vulgarised by crowds of literary people...” Oscar Wilde

In this first episode Mark visits the lovely seaside town of Margate in the Thanet district of Kent.

A magical place where T.S Eliot wrote a verse of The Wasteland, J.M.W Turner painted views of the Harbour, Tracy Emin spent her formative years and Pete Doherty has his name on a wall of fame in a cafe for eating a "mega breakfast" in under 20 minutes.

Mark visits Dreamland and its 100 year old rollercoaster, the famous Crab Museum and the historic Walpole Hotel before perfoming his show in the Cliff Bar and snooker hall under the iconic Lido Tower.

This is the 13th series of Mark's award winning show where he travels around the country visiting towns that have nothing in common but their uniqueness. After thoroughly researching each town, Mark writes and performs a bespoke evening of comedy for a local audience.

As well as Margate, in this series, Mark be will also be popping to Stoke on Trent, Malvern, East Grinstead and Coleraine in Northern Ireland.

There will also be extended versions of each episode available on BBC sounds.

Written and performed by Mark Steel

Additional material by Pete Sinclair

A BBC Studios Audio production for Radio 4