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Mark Heap

Mark Heap
Heap in The World's End in 2013
Born	(1957-05-13) 13 May 1957 (age 67)[1] Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, India
Nationality	British
Occupations	Actor comedian
Years active	1983–present

Mark Heap (born 13 May 1957)^[1] is a British actor and comedian. He is known for his roles in television comedies, including Brass Eye, Big Train, Spaced, Jam, Green Wing, Friday Night Dinner, Upstart Crow, and Benidorm.

Heap was born in Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, India,^[2] to an English father and American mother, the youngest of four boys.^[1] He began acting in the 1970s as a member of the Medieval Players,^[3] a touring company performing medieval and early modern theatre, and featuring stilt-walking, juggling and puppetry.^[3] His brother Carl Heap, who is also an actor, was the artistic director of the company.^[3] After its demise, he became part of the street theatre duo The Two Marks (with Mark Saban).^[4]

Heap starred in the BBC sketch show Big Train, where he performed a barefoot gymnastics routine and other sketches between 1998 and 2002, alongside other burgeoning comedy stars Simon Pegg, Julia Davis, Kevin Eldon, Catherine Tate, Amelia Bullmore, Rebecca Front, Nick Frost and Tracy-Ann Oberman.^[5] He appeared as struggling artist Brian Topp in Spaced (1999–2001),^[6] and the pompous Dr. Alan StathaminGreen Wing (2004–07).^[6]

Heap worked with Chris Morris, in Blue Jam, radio predecessor to Jam,^[2] and the documentary parody series Brass Eye.^[1] He voiced the lead character of Eric Feeble in the animated comedy Stressed Eric. Other recurring roles included: Terry Roche in Paul Whitehouse's comedy-drama Happiness and Derek Few in How Do You Want Me?.^[1] He played Harry in the short-lived Rob Grant TV series The Strangerers, in 2000.^[2] He also guested in the second series of the BBC comedy Look Around You as Leonard Hatred.^[2]

He appeared as an unsuccessful businessman who became a bellboy, in the 2007 BBC One drama Hotel Babylon.^[2] Between 2008-10 he appeared as head postman Thomas Brown, in 32 episodes of the BBC period drama Lark Rise to Candleford.^[1] He was the super villain Lightkiller, in an episode of the sitcom No Heroics.^[2] He also appeared as the father of Chris Miles in the Channel 4 programme Skins.^[2] Heap played the love interest of the main character in the second series of the BBC comedy Love Soup.^[2] He played the role of Charles Dickens in the 2009 BBC Two drama Desperate Romantics.^[2] He also played Jessica Hynes' husband in the one-off comedy written by Hynes and Julia Davis: Lizzie & Sarah.^[2]

In 2010, Heap appeared as Bob Stevens, the leader of a rambling group in the BBC4 series The Great Outdoors.^[2] He also appeared as a psychiatristinMiranda Hart's BBC2 comedy Miranda. ^[2] In October 2010, he appeared as Robin in the four-part BBC drama Single Father.^[2] From 2011 to 2020 Heap played eccentric neighbour Jim Bell in the Channel 4 sitcom Friday Night Dinner alongside Simon Bird, Paul Ritter, Tom Rosenthal and Tamsin Greig.^[6] He also played Andrew Thorogood in the BBC Four comedy Holy Flying Circus,^[2] and Jonas in the eighth episode of E4's sci-fi comedy-drama Misfits in Series 3.^[2] He appeared as a misguided church minister during an outbreak of smallpox, in the BBC series The Indian Doctor.^[2] In 2012, he joined the cast of the Sky1 original series Spy,^[2] for its second series commencing in October 2012, replacing Tom Goodman-Hill as Philip Quil, Judith's partner and Marcus' headteacher.^[2]

He appeared in the spin-off episode of Outnumbered,^[2] the Christmas special episode, aired on 24 December 2012 in which he portrayed Norris, for this single episode.^[2] He played the owner of a pet crematorium in Sue Perkins's 2013 comedy Heading Out.^[2] He had a leading role in BBC Radio 4's adaptation of Gogol's Dead Souls.^[2] He appeared as Robert Greene in three series of Upstart Crow (2016–18),^[2]aBBC Two sitcom about Shakespeare, written by Ben Elton.^[1] He also appeared as Dr. John Hall in the stage show based on the programme.^[1]

From 2017-18, Heap also appeared in the sitcom Benidorm,^[1] playing the character Malcolm Barrett, the controlling and manipulative boyfriend of Pauline Maltby.^[1] In 2019, he appeared in Acorn TV's Queens of Mystery alongside Olivia Vinall.^[2]

In 2020, Heap appeared in Intelligence,^[2] and played headmaster and husband in ITV's The Trouble with Maggie Cole.^[2]

In 1983, Heap made a brief appearance as a torch-juggler in the James Bond film Octopussy. He played Duncan, Rik Mayall's hapless personal assistant, in Bring Me the Head of Mavis Davis (1997).^[2] He played a school teacher in the 2002 film About a Boy.^[2] He made a cameo appearance with Kevin EldoninTim Burton's 2005 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.^[2] He played supporting roles in Confetti (2006), Tunnel of Love (2004), Stardust (2007).^[2] In 2008 he co-starred in the surreal sci-fi B-movie spoof Captain Eager and the Mark of Voth, and was a publican in The World's End.^[2]

In 1993, Heap played a villain, Hans Schultze, in an episode of Crimewatch File, “Double Identity”. Schultze was the German alter ego of an Englishman, John Calton. Schultze/Calton led a gang of kidnappers who robbed banks and a Tesco branch, holding families hostage.

In 2008 Heap played the role of Widmerpool in a Radio 4 serialisation of Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time. He played Eliza's husband in 2006 Radio 4 play The Eliza Stories and appeared as Marmite the Dwarf in the short-lived Radio 4 sitcom The Sofa of Time. He starred in the music video for Four Tet's single "Smile Around the Face" in 2005, contributed a multitude of character voices in the audiobook "Do Ants Have Arseholes?". In 2012 he starred as Martin in the Radio 4 play Cordite for Breakfast, a comedy about Napoleonic-era battle re-enactments.^[9] In March 2013, he appeared as Rincewind in a 4-part Radio 4 adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Eric. He also played the angel Aziraphale in the 2014 BBC radio adaption of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens.^[10] He also was the lead in a series of radio advertisements for telecommunications company TalkTalk. ^[11]

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