this morning - oliver speight

Oliver Speight

On January 13 this year, TV presenter Mark Speight was found hanging from the roof of MacMillan House, next to Paddington Station in London - just days after the 'death by misadventure' of fiancé Natasha Collins. Ms Collins was found dead in the bath at Mark’s flat on January 3 2008.

Although Natasha had taken a concoction of cocaine, sleeping pills and alcohol, the coroner found that she had died when she lost consciousness (because of heart complications) and received 60% burns to her body when the hot tap was left running.

Initially, Mark was wrongly charged with his fiancé’s death, but once he’d been cleared the children’s TV presenter struggled to live without his sweetheart.

Mark’s father Oliver said he last spoke to Mark on Sunday April 6 - the day before he disappeared. "He did not seem on top of his game. He seemed contained... withdrawn,” says the presenter’s father. “I suppose with the drug issue, an uncertain future and the police investigation on top of Natasha's death, he just imploded"

Now Oliver is determined to continue his son’s legacy and not dwell on the negatives that surrounded the circumstances. Oliver has since set up a foundation in Mark's name to help discover young talent in the UK no matter their background.

Click play on the image above to watch Oliver talk about continuing Mark's legacy

Poignantly, Oliver is able to take another positive from all of this: "The beauty for me about Mark is that he never will ever grow old and that's the relationship the children will always have with him."

For information on the foundation, please email -

sp8.foundation@spectredev.co.uk

Competitions
Fancy your chances?

Try your luck and pit your wits and you could end up with a top prize
Entertainment
Star turns

Stay in the know about what the This Morning celebrities are up to