Bright Spark

Mark Stuckey has repaired hundreds of items and countless broken hearts as the mechanical maestro of the BBC's popular factual entertainment show, The Repair Shop. What the programme's millions of viewers don't know is that the enigmatic engineer has kept an incredible secret - even from his fellow experts on the beloved series... For the first time, Mark reveals how he worked for decades as a top magician performing at iconic venues and on television. He then went behind the scenes to work on classic shows like Red Dwarf and develop original projects for legendary producers Gerry Anderson and Peter Rogers. All this he achieved under a different name - an alter ego he has kept private... until now!From his gadget-filled garden workshop, Mark shares the skills he has learned from a lifetime of technological tinkering, explaining the intricacy involved when repairing vintage television sets, portable suitcase radios and cinema projection equipment. With each item he saves from the scrapheap, Mark is transported back to a defining moment in his story. In his deeply personal and candid memoir, Mark journals his nomadic and rebellious childhood, navigating his father's gambling and his mother's alcoholism. Mark reflects philosophically on his first marriage collapsing and how he eventually found his soulmate in the most unusual of places: building nuclear weapons systems. From family estrangement to a devastating house fire, Mark has dealt with life's challenges positively with dogged pragmatism and an assured self-belief. His insatiable quest for knowledge has propelled him to succeed, helping him master electronic circuitry, study martial arts, build a cinema and explore the stars. Injected with his trademark humour, honesty and humanity, Bright Spark is Mark's compelling, vivid and inspiring memoir, celebrating how we can all learn to do anything and make the most of life because, frankly, it's too ruddy short.