Born in 1955 in Birmingham Mark trained at Stratford college of FE under Gordon Vallins before training at Birmingham School of Speech and Drama, but left after one year to tour with Marius Goring(1974) as DSM. Mark is married to Annie and lives in Sussex. His eldest son James is a film producer, middle son Chris is lead guitarist with Flies Are Spies From Hell an acclaimed post rock band, and youngest son Tom is a builder. He also has a daughter Teri.