Mark Stuckey

In his various talks, Mark shares his passion for learning and how he has lived his life through a collection of ‘curiosity boxes’. Subjects include:

• Astronomy – Mark was a friend and protégé of Horace Dall, the legendary optical engineer and planetary photographer. He spent his youth exploring the stars through Horace’s famous Dall-Kirkham Cassegrain telescope in his garden Observatory – Mark is now the proud custodian of the observatory and telescope and can talk for hours about the stars. His talk tells the story of Horace, whose archive is on permanent exhibit at the Science Museum, and his own journey of Astronomy. In his own words: “Horace inspired me because he never had any formal training in astronomy or lunar photography; he was a gifted amateur who followed his own path and found solutions to problems in optics, which others didn’t know could be solved. He was that role model who had been lacking during my education, showing me that you don’t have to be an academic with a doctorate or a professorship to be a creative thinker, and that you can avoid being narrow-minded in your vision by thinking outside the box.”
• Science – Mark is passionate about Quantum Physics, Time Dilation, Space travel etc. In his own words: “Hopefully, science never pretends to know the full answer; generally speaking, the more we find out, the more we realise we don’t understand. That’s the fun about science; it’s essentially all just theory, which helps us try to make sense of the world, or the universe around us. People should never be arrogant with science; I don’t like people with letters after their name using the word ‘definite’, spouting their theories as fact, because there are so many things out in space that we know exist, but just can’t make any sense of yet. Science is only as good as the day someone comes up with a better solution to it.”
• Amateur Radio – Mark has been “a radio ham” for decades and can bring to life this vintage form of communication and how it has evolved over the years. In his own words: “Every amateur radio operator, of which there are hundreds of thousands of us across the globe, has to be licensed. This allows us to transmit across the low frequency shortwave. If you started out years ago, as I did back in the 1970s, you had to pass a City and Guilds exam to become a B licensee. With this, a radio ham was permitted to transmit on frequencies on the VHF and UHF amateur bands. Back then, shortwave was exclusively for the big boys who had an A license. To be a proud member of the A-Team, you had to complete a Morse test, phonetically delivering 12 words per minute. In the 90s, they removed the John Thaw element of the license, breaking the old system up by adding a foundation license, which covered just the basics. This made some of the seasoned radio hams, who were usually ex-forces, a bit grumpy, as they were of that old school “we didn’t have it easy, so why should they?” generation. But as the years went by, it was obvious that a growing number of people, young and old, were interested in amateur radio, but because they didn’t have a technical background, the previous system made this hobby beyond their reach. By breaking it down into three tiers, it was a way of encouraging some fresh blood and making sure this wasn’t becoming a dying art. And with intermediary and advanced courses available, newbies still have something to aspire to.”
• The Repair Shop – Mark can bring to life the making of the programme through his perspective, some of his most famous fixes and sharing hilarious behind the scenes stories. In his own words: “We normally film our Christmas Specials in the spring, not only to make sure we create something special for our viewers, but the light levels in March or April are quite similar to those in winter. Whilst this saves us from enduring the bitter cold, we occasionally have some artificial snow to create that romantic White Christmas vibe. But for some barmy reason, we are not allowed to call it snow on camera, so once, I just couldn’t resist doing a gag. I looked up at the sky and announced, “Oh look, its Sodium Polyacrylate-ing!” Needless to say, that didn’t make the final cut! It’s pretty expensive to cover an area the size of the barn with fake snow, probably a pound a flake, so you can imagine how the producers felt when we came back the following Monday to start filming the next series… and it was snowing for real!”
• Life story – Mark can give a flavour of his fascinating life story (ideally in a Q&A scenario with his biographer Oliver Crocker). Other discussion subjects here can include ancient Rome, film collecting, building his own home cinema, working on nuclear weapons systems, car restorations, a lifetime love of Doctor Who, engineering, electronics, he’s even ran a Guest House… Every subject would be shared with infectious enthusiasm, humour and honesty.