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 him being awarded 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; from 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. He 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”. He has published a children’s book about sleep “Slumberland“ and is now working on his new book “101 Facts You Didn’t Know About Deep 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 ten 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. He is also an accomplished event host having hosted the Norfolk Tourism Awards and Space Comm Expo.
He is working on a pilot series of his new podcast title Cosmic Commerce where he will be exploring the business of space!
In September 2021 Mark completed a marathon charity lecture where he talked for 140 hours 42 minutes and 56 seconds. It was an experience that took him through extreme sleep deprivation causing him to suffer memory loss and halucinations and also pushed his voice to its limits. He is now a keen advocate for the importance of sleep and is patron of the Sleep Charity.
Mark's Showreel