Mark Steel: What the F**k is Going On?

Mark Steel is coming to Derby Theatre on Sunday 23 May 2027 with a brand-new show called What the Fk is Going On?. It's a stand-up set that takes on the state of the world, and the title pretty much sums up the starting point.

If you've listened to him on Radio 4, you'll know the territory he likes to work in. For years, Mark Steel's In Town did exactly that for individual places — he'd take a town and explain how it actually works, the history and the politics that shaped it, and why it ended up the way it did. This show does the same thing on a much larger scale. Instead of one town, he's looking at the whole world, and the way he goes about it is a big part of the appeal: he describes it as calmly and gently yelling in exasperation at the world's chaotic eruptions until everything makes sense.

It's that particular mix of genuine frustration and a desire to actually figure things out that runs through his work. He's a BBC Radio 4 favourite, and this is a new show, so it's fresh material rather than a best-of. If you've followed his radio work, you'll recognise the approach — taking the messy, confusing state of things and trying to find the thread that ties it all together.

It's a single night at Derby Theatre on Sunday 23 May 2027, so it's a one-off rather than a run. If you're into his kind of comedy — the sort that looks at the news and the politics of the day and asks why on earth it's all gone this way — this is exactly the kind of thing he does best.