WRITER and stand-up comedian Mark Steel is back on the road at the Lighthouse Poole on May 1. He’ll be performing a routine about the town’s history.

Bringing an element of Mark Steel’s In Town to each live show on this tour, means Mark will write material shedding light on the interesting aspects of every town and city he visits, allowing each show to be unique – to relate to local audiences.

Mark says of his recent local knowledge in Dorset: “The Isle of Portland in Dorset, where schoolkids are given detention for saying ‘rabbit’ as the word is considered unlucky, and where a member of the audience threw a missile at the suggestion it might be said.”

Other towns that Steel has researched include Boston: “Whose complaint that it’s been unfairly labelled as a ‘chav’ town seems compromised by the shop in its High Street called ‘It Must be Stolen’.”

As well as Mark Steel’s In Town, Mark has presented the BAFTA nominated Mark Steel Lectures for BBC2, is a regular on BBC One’s Have I Got News For You and Radio 4’s Newsquiz. He’s written several, acclaimed books, including: Reasons To Be Cheerful and What’s Going On and he writes a weekly column for The Independent.