MARK Thomas, one of the most controversial TV comedians on the current scene, is appearing at the Swan Theatre, Stratford on Monday.

Host of his own Channel 4 comedy show, the Mark Thomas Comedy Product, he will launch the frantic week-long close-up of comedy at the theatre with other top stand-ups including Bill Bailey, Ross Noble and Rhona Cameron.

Mark is famous for his cutting political satire with subject matter anything but light-hearted.

During the time that Mark has been performing as a stand-up comic his agent claims a Conservative councillor has resigned from office over one of his shows, He's also won a Time Out/01 for London Awards for his "distinctive contribution to the art of comedy" and has been nominated for an Edinburgh Festival Perrier Award. He was resident stand-up on Saturday Zoo on Channel 4, presented the highly successful Radio One show Loose Talk, and was founder member of the London Comedy Store's hard-hitting Cutting Edge show,

Over the years the comedian has been described as an iconoclastic boot boy and a taboo-breaking comic at the top of his tree. David Steel, the ex-leader of the liberal democrats, once described him as a "disgusting individual" at the same time as being hailed exciting and outrageously funny by critics.

His latest stage show - After Ilisu - What I Did Next - is all about Mark, Iraq and the USA.

He joked: "If you don't know the work that I did on Channel 4, have not heard of or seen last year's tour Dambusters about the Ilisu dam, think that a comedy evening should be about switching off, then you are banned!"

Mark's interest in politics began early when he witnessed his parents taking direct action over their beliefs.

He was born in 1963. His father was a builder and lay preacher at Clapham's Nazarene Church and his mother was a midwife.

He won a scholarship to Christ's Hospital public school and went on to study at Bretton Hall drama college in Wakefied.

His parents' political views differed somewhat from his own, however. He said: "Dad was a working-glass Thatcherite before Thatcher, who believed you have to get out there and help yourself."

Unhappy at being sent away from home to school, Mark described how he bunked off, usually to the school theatre. "It was a way of escaping, of entering into another world, he said."

He began performing his own sketches and shows, encouraged by his drama teacher.

Mark's interest in drama was piqued by his appetite for politics and by the time he became a student, he was doing benefit shows for the miners' strike and became a picket-line activist.

After college he worked for his father by day and did stand-up by night. He then moved into full-time comedy doing stand-up tours of the UK before his television series took off.

Even when he is not working, Mark is always on the lookout to prove his point. He described how on a recent trip to the Tate Modern with his son, Charlie, they stuck pictures of the five-year-old's art up on the walls.

He added however that he tried not to "dump" his politics on his children."

For tickets, contact the RSC box office on 01789 403403.