Obituary: Mark Speight

Mark Speight was born in Trowbridge, Wiltshire in 1965 to parents Oliver, a property developer, and art teacher Jacqueline.

He grew up in Wolverhampton and went to school at Tettenhall College and Regis Comprehensive. Though he struggled academically, leaving school at the age of 16, he showed a keen passion for art and went on to obtain a degree in Commercial and Graphic Art.

His television breakthrough came in 1994 when he heard about auditions for a new BBC kids' art show called SMart while working in TV production. After landing the presenting job, he served as a host on the show from its launch until he quit earlier this year following the death of his fiancée Natasha Collins.

Saturday morning show Scratchy & Co. provided Speight with further success in the mid-'90s. The show was nominated for a BAFTA before eventually being replaced by SM:TV Live on the ITV schedules.

A lively on-screen presenter, he also appeared in Beat The Cyborgs for CITV, SMarteenies on CBeebies and History Busters, a 13-part series for Discovery Kids which won a Royal Television Society award in 2003. He worked with Rolf Harris in 2005's Rolf On Art - The Big Events, a live BBC show that recreated a giant version of John Constable's painting The Haywain in Trafalgar Square.

As one of the country's most popular art-show presenters, Speight would often take household items such as empty washing-up liquid bottles and sticky-backed plastic and show viewers how to create collages from them.

He also appeared on Blue Peter, This Morning and as a contestant on ITV's Celebrity Wrestling. A frequent pantomime performer, Speight recently starred as Buttons in Watersmeet Theatre's production of Cinderella last Christmas.

In 1999, while presenting game show See It Saw It for the BBC, he met the actress and model Natasha Collins. The pair later became engaged to be married but Collins found her career was halted after being involved in a serious car accident in 2000.

In January this year, Collins was found dead in the bath tub of the flat she shared with Speight in North London. Distraught by his fiancée's death from an overdose of cocaine and sleeping pills, Speight quit his job as the presenter of SMart in February and was reported missing on April 8 after he failed to meet Collins's mother Carmen for lunch.

His body was found yesterday at Paddington station, West London.

> Mark Speight timeline