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Mark Steel is on the move like never before. He’s currently got his Mark Steel’s In Town Radio 4 programme taking him around the UK, sometimes farther; he’s touring a one-man show, playing dozens of venues from Ramsgate to Inverness; also this autumn he’s squeezing in trips to Dublin and Strasbourg to watch his beloved Crystal Palace football team.
But there’s more. On top of all that, Steel’s just become one half of an inspired Radio 4 mash-up that’s brought him together with another star of the network, on an assignment that required him to don his walking boots and stride out across the Rutland countryside.
We are of course talking about Clare Balding and Ramblings, an environment with which one might not immediately associate a figure such as Steel. But when you listen to them together, it’s clear how readily the caustic left-wing stand-up comedian and the all-heart Queen of Outdoors took to each other.
With both of them being passionate sports fans, it’s not like they were setting off on a tour of Rutland Water – the giant reservoir that takes up much of England’s smallest county – without anything in common. Far from it, in fact. “I think probably four-fifths of what we talked about was sport,” Steel says.
The pair had met a couple of times before but didn’t know each other well, and by way of a Ramblings warm-up, Balding put in a cameo appearance on Steel’s In Town in the Rutland town of Oakham. Now both programmes, recorded within a day of each other, are airing in the same week.
“She’s such a fascinating soul with so many passions,” Steel says. “We got on really well. I’ve sat and watched her present so much sport and she’s exactly the same in person. I feel she’s this very strong figure, but so amiable.”
Spending time with Balding reminded Steel of the occasion he met colourful cricket commentator Henry Blofeld of Test Match Special fame. “I was a guest on TMS when Henry was on, and I remember saying to him, ‘I’m so glad you are the person I always knew.’ It was the same with Clare.”
Steel is also full of admiration for Balding’s achievements in pioneering the role of women in sports broadcasting. “One of the joyous things about sport these days is it’s now totally accepted that the women’s side is a fundamental part of how sport operates, and Clare is one of the people who’s made that happen.”
The Ramblings format, Steel feels, lends itself to the type of conversation you wouldn’t have in any other circumstances. “I wouldn’t call myself a rambler. I’m more of a cyclist. And when you’re riding a bike, you have to concentrate on the road so much that you might not notice what’s around you. But if you’re just walking along, side by side, it’s so different. The setting dictates the kind of conversationyou have, and you’re much more likely to learn things about someone.”
That element of Ramblings brought out a more sombre point of contact between the pair – the shared experience they both have of cancer. Steel, who is 65, and Balding, 54, only briefly allude to it on air, but it clearly remains present for both broadcasters for all that they hope it’s behind them.
In fact, Steel’s touring stand-up show, The Leopard in My House, directly references how the wild animal of a disease suddenly took up residence in his body, and both he and Balding – their cancers affecting the throat and the thyroid, respectively – see the cruel twist of it targeting their voices, their livelihoods.
When Steel says, “I’m not the fittest man in the world but I can manage a five-mile ramble,” the “fittest” clearly isn’t referring to his cancer or physical ability – he’s just not a bloke who would normally go in for this sort of thing. So, would he like to go rambling with Clare Balding again? “Absolutely. I’d really enjoy that.”
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