Mark Lawson

For other people named Mark Lawson, seeMark Lawson (disambiguation).

Mark Lawson
Lawson in 2013
Born	Mark Gerard Lawson Hendon,London, England
Occupation	Journalist broadcaster author
Nationality	British

Mark Gerard Lawsonis an English journalist, broadcaster and author. Specialising in culture and the arts, he is best known for presenting the flagshipBBC Radio 4arts programmeFront Rowbetween 1998 and 2014.He is also aGuardiancolumnist, and presentedMark Lawson Talks To...onBBC Fourfrom 2006 to 2015.

Life and career

Born inHendon,north London,Lawson was raised inLeeds,where his father was a marketing director for theCivil ServiceandBritish Telecom.Both of his parents originated from the northeast of England.

He was brought up aCatholic,and was educated at the independent Catholic schoolSt Columba's CollegeinSt Albans.He then took a degree in English atUniversity College London,where his lecturers includedJohn SutherlandandA. S. Byatt.

Lawson became afreelancecontributor to numerous publications in 1984, beginning onThe Universein that year, and forThe Timesfrom 1984 to 1986. He has written a column forThe Guardiansince 1995, having previously written forThe Independent(1986–95), and has twice been TV Critic of the Year, as well as winning many other journalism awards. However,Richard Gott,a former colleague, commented in 2002 that the "prevalence of the bland and the obsequious" onThe Guardianis typified by Lawson's "embedded presence".

Lawson presentedThe Late ShowonBBC2in the 1990s and presented its offshootThe Late Review(laterSunday Reviewand from 2000NewsnightReview) until the 2005 "review of the year" edition ofNewsnight Review,broadcast on 16 December, which marked the end of his association with the format. In 2004, Lawson made a documentary forBBC FourcalledThe Truth About Sixties TV,criticising what he called "golden ageists" who, he said, had a rose-tinted view of television's past.

Lawson became the main presenter ofBBC Radio 4's daily arts programme,Front Row,in 1998.He has written several radio plays for the network, includingSt Graham and St Evelyn(2003) on the friendship between the Catholic novelistsGraham GreeneandEvelyn WaughandThe Third Soldier Holds His Thighs(2005) onMary Whitehouse's unsuccessful litigation against theNational Theatreproduction ofHoward Brenton's playThe Romans in Britain.Lawson has also written episodes of the television version of the BBC sitcomAbsolute Powerappearing as himself in the series 1 episode 2, "Pope Idol". He is one of many celebrities impersonated by theDead Ringersteam, referred to as "Britain's brainiest potato" and "the thinking woman's potato" because of his baldness.His in-depth, one-to-one interviews forBBC Four,entitledMark Lawson Talks to…,ran from 2006 to 2015.

In addition to his work in print journalism and the broadcast media, Lawson has written five books, both fiction and non-fiction. His first,Bloody Margaret(1991), is a collection of novellas on late 20th-century politics in the UK, including an eponymous satire concerningMargaret Thatcher.This was followed byThe Battle for Room Service(1993), a travelogue of people, politics and culture encountered by Lawson as a journalist. His 1995 bookIdlewildis analternative historynovel in which bothJohn F. KennedyandMarilyn Monroesurvived the 1960s.Going Out Live(2001) focused on contemporarycelebrity cultureand the media, andEnough is Enough(2005) is a satire set in the government ofHarold Wilsonduring the late 1960s. Lawson chaired the judges for the 2011Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine.

In 2006, Lawson witnessed, and reported to the BBC, a sexual assault on a BBC staff member byJimmy Savile,later found to have been a prolific sex offender. This was recorded in theDame Janet Smith Reviewreport of 2016.In 2022, Lawson wrote about this encounter and his personal experience of Savile in British society.

Lawson's connection withFront Rowended in March 2014 for "personal reasons" in a joint agreement with the BBC.An internal report completed in January investigated claims of bullying within the BBC Radio Arts, which producesFront Row,and identified one producer and presenter as responsible.The Daily Telegraphreported on 5 March that Lawson was the presenter involved and he had been accused of "browbeating junior staff" who are often young freelancers.Lawson denied bullying. In his 2016 novelThe Allegations,a lecturer at a fictional English university faces disciplinary action and dismissal for "B&H" (bullying and harassment). Dr Tom Pimm is accused of sighing during departmental meetings, "divisive social invitations" and "visual Insubordination (sic) towards senior management". Pimm attends a hearing during which he is told that "if someone felt you were being insensitive then, to all intents and purposes, you were". In the book's afterword, Lawson writes

It is the case that during a long, generally privileged and happy career in the media, I suffered one devastating experience of institutional group-think, baffling and contradictory management, false accusation and surreally sub-legal process; and have personal knowledge of the damage to reputation, employability and health that can result from such an ordeal.

Lawson supportsNorthampton Town FCand frequently goes to games, both atSixfields Stadiumand away. He lives nearTowcesterinNorthamptonshire.

Bibliography

• Bloody Margaret: Three Political Fantasies(Picador, 1991)ISBN0-330-32386-5
• The Battle for Room Service: Journeys to All the Safe Places(Picador, 1993)ISBN0-330-32384-9
• Idlewild(Picador, 1995)ISBN0-330-34111-1
• Going Out Live(Picador, 2001)ISBN0-330-48860-0
• Enough Is Enough: or, The Emergency Government(Picador, 2005)ISBN0-330-43803-4
• The Deaths(Picador, 2013)
• The Allegations.London: Picador. 2016.ISBN978-1-5098-2088-7.OCLC953332571.

External links

• Guardiancolumns by Mark Lawson
• BBC Radio 4 profile
• Mark Lawson interview techniques,BBC Academy