Mark Dolan

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Mark Dolan
Mark Dolan 2019 Glastonbury Festival 01 (cropped).jpg
Dolan performing in June 2019
Born (1974-03-17) 17 March 1974 (age 47)
London, England
OccupationComedian, writer, presenter
Years active2000–present
Children2
Websitewww.markdolan.com

Mark Dolan (born 17 March 1974) is an English comedian, writer, and presenter. He currently hosts Tonight Live with Mark Dolan on GB News.

Early life[]

Dolan was born to Irish parents in the Camden area of London on St Patrick's Day, 17 March 1974, and grew up in northwest London.[citation needed] He attended University College School and the University of Edinburgh, where he received an MA in politics. Whilst an undergraduate at Edinburgh, he performed in the improvisational comedy troupe The Improverts.[1]

Career[]

Stand-up comedy[]

Dolan started as a stand-up comedian in 2000, reaching the final of Channel 4's So You Think You're Funny competition in his first year of performing.[citation needed]. He has toured the world as a live comic and has performed 11 runs at the Edinburgh Fringe. He won an award at the 2018 Leicester Mercury Comedy Festival for best joke of the festival and later performed online during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Radio[]

Dolan's career in media began as a radio producer, working for the female-only[clarification needed] Viva Radio, 963 Liberty and the original incarnation of talkRADIO and then talkSPORT. He was the producer of the Nick Ferrari and David Banks-fronted Big Boys' Breakfast, to which he also contributed comedy sketches.[citation needed]

In 2017 Dolan returned to radio, presenting a breakfast show on , an online radio station based in London.[2]

In 2019, Dolan joined talkRADIO, where he presented Drivetime from 4pm to 7 Monday to Friday, Saturday nights 10pm to 1am and Sundays 8pm to 10pm. He left the station in July 2021.

In September 2020, at a time in the COVID-19 pandemic when the wearing of face coverings was compulsory in shops and on public transport in the United Kingdom, Dolan cut up a face mask during a talkRADIO broadcast,[3] calling the masks "wretched, godawful, damned, blinking, uncomfortable, scientifically empty, and useless".[4] Dolan's fellow talkRADIO host Jamie East quit the station when Dolan went unpunished by station bosses.[5] Presenter Piers Morgan and doctor Hilary Jones criticised his actions on Good Morning Britain as behaviour that could "cost lives".[6] The next month Dolan clarified that he followed all government rules on mask wearing, but considered the science around them to be "flaky".[7]

Television[]

Dolan was the host of Channel 4 show Balls of Steel, which he presented from 2005 to 2008 and for which he won Best Presenter at the NRTA Awards. He was also the presenter of the TV documentary series The World's ...And Me, in which he met some of "the world's most extraordinary people", including the tallest woman in the world, the smallest man and the richest teenager. The show ran to three series and twelve one-hour films and led to the release of the book The World's Most Extraordinary People and Me, published by Harper Collins.

Dolan first came to the public's attention in 2002 after writing and performing in a Comedy Lab entitled The Richard Taylor Interviews.[8]

In 2006, Dolan helped launch More4 as the host of The Last Word, a nightly topical discussion show. He has also fronted shows for E4, including its launch comedy series, Show Me The Funny, and provides his voice as presenter of a new series[citation needed] for Five called Urban Legends. For five years, Dolan was the presenter of Sky Movies' weekly movie-news show 35mm[9] and Channel 4's The Mad Bad Ad Show.

In February 2013, Dolan took part in the fifth series of Let's Dance for Comic Relief as a member of "Destiny's Dad" alongside fellow stand-up comedians Hal Cruttenden and Shaun Keaveny.[10]

In 2015, Dolan co-hosted If Katie Hopkins Ruled the World with British reality TV personality Katie Hopkins.[11]

In 2016, he won the Celebrity Come Dine with Me Christmas Special, with a Dickensian themed meal of pea soup, three bird roast and plum duff as desert. He also appeared in the fourth and final series of the Channel 4 wintersports entertainment show The Jump, alongside Bradley Wiggins, Robbie Fowler, and Jason Robinson.[12]

Dolan joined GB News on 23 July 2021. He hosts Tonight Live with Mark Dolan on the channel on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.[13][14]

References[]

  1. ^ "Fringe Q&As: Mark Dolan on his new stand up show Life Hacks". The Herald Scotland. 2 August 2016.
  2. ^ "Mark Dolan Eats the News". Fubar Radio.
  3. ^ "Mask use in the context of COVID-19". WHO. 1 December 2020.
  4. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vurv270Uv0I
  5. ^ Tobitt, Charlotte (28 September 2020). "Talkradio host quits after fellow presenter cut up face mask on air". Press Gazette.
  6. ^ Ellie Harrison, ed. (30 September 2020). "Piers Morgan condemns talkRADIO host Mark Dolan for cutting up face mask: 'People may die because he did that'". The Independent.
  7. ^ Fordy, Tom (1 October 2020). "Mark Dolan's war on Covid tyranny: 'Wearing a mask is an act of virtue signalling'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  8. ^ "The Richard Taylor Interviews". 15 January 2003 – via IMDb.
  9. ^ "35mm". Archived from the original on 8 December 2009.
  10. ^ "Desiny's Dad".
  11. ^ "If Katie Hopkins Rule the World, TLC, review: 'a mixed bag'". The Daily Telegraph.
  12. ^ Fullerton, Huw. "Mark Dolan on The Jump 2017's improved calibre: "Last series half the group weren't even signed off to do the jump!"". Radio Times.
  13. ^ GB News [@GBNEWS] (19 July 2021). "Award-winning broadcaster, writer and comedian Mark Dolan is joining GB News" (Tweet). Retrieved 19 July 2021 – via Twitter.
  14. ^ Goodall, Sophie; Channon, Max (20 July 2021). "GB News announces new prime-time signing Mark Dolan". WalesOnline.

External links[]

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