Mark Gatiss
Presentation address by Deputy Head of School of Performance and Cultural Industries, Associate Professor Scott Palmer
Chancellor,
Mark Gatiss is a multi-award winning performer, writer, director and producer of international renown.
A University of Leeds alumnus he was educated in the School of Dance and Theatre at Bretton Hall College graduating with a degree in Theatre Arts in 1989. Since that time, he has developed an extraordinary career that spans multiple genres across stage, film, radio, television and publishing.
His work has been characterised by pushing artistic boundaries. This was evident as an undergraduate when his distinctive qualities and ‘subversive imagination’ were clear to his tutors. His parody game show Damage Your Children drawing on Jacobean revenge tragedy, outraged the judges at the 1988 National Student Drama Festival.
First recognised for his work as a quarter of The League of Gentlemen - with fellow Bretton graduates Steve Pemberton, Reece Shearsmith and Leeds alumnus Jeremy Dyson - the group won the Perrier award for their radical new approach to comedy, transitioning from stage to radio and then to television, winning multiple awards including the Golden Rose of Montreux.
Mark Gatiss has been creatively prolific, as both storyteller and performer – he has appeared on screen in work that includes Mission Impossible, Wolf Hall, and Game of Thrones.
On stage his achievements have been recognised on multiple occasions; notably with the 2016 Olivier Award for Best Supporting Role in Three Days in the Country. This year, his portrayal of John Gielgud in the National Theatre’s The Motive and the Cue won the Olivier Award for Best Actor. This extraordinary performance, as the older director in rehearsal for the 1964 Broadway Hamlet with the young Richard Burton, created an experience that critics observed was like “being in the company of ghosts.” Perhaps this is not surprising given Mark’s penchant for the supernatural.
For television Mark wrote and appeared in the contemporary re-imaging of Doctor Who and co-created the BBC/Netflix drama Dracula. His work shows us the world through alternative lenses whether through the chilling atmosphere of a ghost story, the humour of small town eccentricity or the deductive brilliance of a certain ‘consulting detective’. Mark co-envisaged, produced and performed as Mycroft Holmes, in the postmodern BBC adaptation Sherlock. which has won multiple international awards.
Mark’s published volume Queers celebrates a century of evolving social attitudes and political milestones in British gay history, as seen through the eyes of eight individuals, presenting poignant stories of hope and survival in times of repression.
As a vocal critic of the last government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda and the damaging impact that Brexit has had on our country, Mark has championed his northern working class heritage and has been a key advocate for the arts. In 2023 he received the Outstanding Contribution to British Theatre at the UK Theatre awards for “the incredible contribution he has made to regional theatre throughout his career in the arts”. His collaborators testify to his artistic generosity and playfulness both on set and off.
Mark Gatiss embodies the energy, collaborative spirit and entrepreneurial ambition that we hope all of our graduates aspire to in making their mark on the world. The exceptional range of achievements across his career, have been fostered around a desire to make a difference through creativity.
The University is proud of all that he has achieved.
Chancellor, it is with great pleasure that I present to you for the Degree of Doctor of Laws honoris causa, Mark Gatiss.