He is most well known for his role as one of the presenting team on BBC Stargazing LIVE and for his tireless enthusiasm for making science accessible. This has resulted in an Honorary Doctorate from the University of East Anglia.
In 2009 Mark joined the factual presenting team on The One Show on BBC One where he regularly presented films from all across the UK; exploring the strange properties of dark matter down a salt mine in North Yorkshire to learning about the mysteries of Stonehenge. Since then Mark has joined the teams on The Alan Titchmarsh Show, This Morning and Good Morning Britain reporting on a variety of science stories. Mark has also appeared on Celebrity Mastermind and Celebrity Pointless and loves enthusing new audiences on the subject of science.
Mark’s first book “A Down to Earth Guide to the Cosmos” was published in 2013 and was followed by “A Space Traveller’s Guide to the Solar System”, “Philips Stargazing with Mark Thompson”, “Philips Astrophotography with Mark Thompson”, “Rocket Science” and his latest book “101 Facts You Didn’t Know About Space”.
Mark is an accomplished speaker having lectured at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting and the world famous Royal Institution. In the last four years he has been touring his award winning Spectacular Science Show at theatres up and down the country including sold out shows at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
In 2019 he launched The Pocket Astronomer podcast which guides listeners around the night sky. The podcast regularly charts amongst the top ten astronomy podcasts in the UK and Canada.
In September 2021 Mark attempted to break the Guinness World Record for the longest marathon lecture requiring him to talk for over 139 hours 42 minutes and 56 seconds. He stopped the clock after 140 hours and 42 seconds and is now waiting to hear from Guinness whether the attempt has been validated. It was an attempt that took him through extreme sleep deprivation causing him to suffer memory loss and halucinations but also pushed his voice to its limits.
Mark's Showreel