Mark is terrific to work with.  He’s incredibly authentic, there’s no pretence, and he really is equally comfortable with science Professors and proper ordinary folk.  It’s a rare skill.

He’s also a genuine team player.  Not many presenters, after a long day working in the Californian sun, and facing a three-hour drive to the next hotel, would utter the immortal words, ‘You guys look knackered, let me drive’!

Mark is a top man, and working with him is great fun and truly collaborative.

Mark is a superb television presenter.  He has that thing which so few people have – he makes it look easy.  That’s because he’s a natural.  He talks to a camera like he’s talking to a friend.  He makes complicated things sound simple.

I worked with him on Inside Nature’s Giants – a series that won just about every award a factual tv programme can win including the Bafta.  Mark was the show’s central protagonist and utterly key to the show’s success and brilliance.  It would not have worked without him.  He was a joy to work with.

Mark’s passion for animals and machines is boundless. 

He is an intrepid presenter who loves adventure and uses his producer skills to distil the essence of an argument and deliver it in a way that makes you sit up and listen.

Few can match his skill presenting complex ideas on live shows or in dazzling one-take pieces-to-camera. 

Mark is a born communicator.  He has a rare ability to make esoteric subjects seem gripping.

I worked with him on C4’s ground-breaking human genetics series, Dead Famous DNA.  It was a high bar for a presenter – a strange mix of dark, funny and hardcore science.  Mark was full of ideas and enthusiasm, tackling challenging subjects with his big brain and quizzing difficult characters with his consummate charm. 

He’s a pleasure to direct, effusing unquestionable expertise and authenticity.

Most of all….he’s a top guy.

Mark combines boyish enthusiasm and a sparkle in his eye, with rigorous storytelling and the team-effort approach needed to make complex factual content accessible, energised and personal to him.

He’s full of creativity, with a producer’s mind, and his genuine warmth with contributors and the team fosters a fun environment from which magic moments can be born: where contributors are surprisingly honest, where the story & action take centre-stage, and key moments hit home. With all his experience he effortlessly navigates the narrative and the characters he meets on the way, taking the complicated logistics of filming in his stride as he holds the viewer by his side. 

Just don’t try to feed him rice!

I worked with Mark at Discovery.  Never was a man more excited by a crankshaft!  And it’s that passion, curiosity and charisma that leap off the screen and connects to the audience.

He is a presenter with a producer’s brain.  His editorial instinct and specialist knowledge add to the content and authenticity of every show he works on.

He’s also great fun with a smile that lights up the room and a kind heart.  

When Mark signs up to a project he’s totally engaged. 

He’s right there with you – getting up to speed with research, offering his help with logistics and rolling up his sleeves on location.  He puts the contributors and crew around him at ease, has an instinctive understanding of what the cameras are capturing (or not capturing) and how sequences will work.  He consistently nails long, pre-written pieces to camera in one take and can help quickly cook up new pieces that cover key content and can be delivered with warmth and clarity.

His flawless hosting of major, multicamera live broadcasts highlights his natural ability.

 All in all, the best possible presenter.

Mark is an extraordinarily natural and televisual communicator. 

I worked with Mark on a long-running dog science series and two landmark documentaries about classic cars.  He is passionate about both subjects and has a great depth of knowledge which he is able to enthuse about in the way that all very talented presenters do – as if they are chatting directly to the viewer at home over a cuppa. 

‘Dogs: Their Secret Lives’ was a big rating hit for Channel 4 and Mark was a crucial part of making that happen.  As much at ease with ordinary contributors (and their dogs) as he was with scientists who respect his qualifications, he struck a difficult balance between getting across the serious message whilst still making the films entertaining. 

Mark’s work off-camera and his links to the world of natural history and science also make him a hugely valuable member of any team.  He is a consummate pro, on and off-camera, and I look forward to working with him again in the future.

Mark has a unique ability to explain the most complicated of concepts in the simplest of ways.  As well as being utterly charming and a pleasure to work with, he is also extremely versatile, as comfortable presenting live to camera as interviewing in a pre-recorded structure.

It’s always a joy to work with Mark – despite being an award-winning presenter he is utterly unpretentious and great fun to spend time with. 

His long experience in broadcasting makes him a wise and calming presence on any shoot.  He’s great at thinking on his feet.  If there’s a problem, Mark is usually the one to solve it! 

Perhaps most important, Mark is incredibly hard working, he does his homework and always wants every film to be as good as it can possibly be. 

Mark is one of the most natural presenters I have ever worked with.  His ability to deliver pieces to camera, both written and on-the-hoof, is second to none and his interactions with contributors bring out the best in them.

Mark’s skills go beyond his on-camera performance.  He has a great editorial brain and a knack for finding the best way to explore a scene. 

If you want to work with a no-nonsense, smart and fun bloke, I would work with Mark every time.

Mark can somehow memorise last-minute pieces to camera and deliver them word perfect just moments later dangling from massive trees / speeding helicopters / wading through whale guts.  A crocodile whacked him in the face once and split his head open and he still finished his PTC!

Mark is always genuinely interested in how things work and how people do things, so can explain complicated ideas in a quick and relatable way.

He gets on with everyone he meets whether the camera is rolling or not; contributors open up, crew have a nice time and you come out friends even on long gruelling shoots.  Mark is great telly.

It was a great pleasure working with Mark on our film about the Grand National for Channel 4.  He was super flexible and professional and brought many excellent ideas to the table about how to make the best film we could.  I would always embrace the opportunity to work with Mark again.

In more than 25 years of directing, producing and series producing TV programmes across multiple genres, I have never worked with a more accommodating and conscientious presenter.

Mark always has a valuable contribution to make editorially and goes the extra mile to get things done.

He’s actually really nice too, which we all know isn’t a given when it comes to on-screen talent!