"I think it's funny that in the middle of the French Revolution the Chief Guillotinier of Paris demanded a pay rise to account for increased productivity," he says. "Or in 1969, a team of New York gays forced the Tactical Patrol Force to retreat when they formed a chorus line and performed a musical in the middle of their own riot."

This sideways look at some of the most tumultuous moments in history was broadcast on BBC Radio Four in 1998.

The programme came about when the writer and performer realised it was time to move on from the contemporary based monologues of his previous show, The Mark Steel Solution.

"I talked to the producer (Phil Clarke), who's also a history enthusiast," reveals Steel, "and we decided to do revolutions with comic sketches".

In the first programme, they reinterpreted the terror of the French Revolution, wondering "how it was that a handful of crazed madmen were able to stroll through France chopping off people's heads".

Setting a template that would also serve him well with his subsequent series The Mark Steel Lectures, the comedian also peppered his presentation with real historical facts.

For example, did you know that the guillotine when first invented was considered humane compared to being hanged or strapped to a water-wheel until your back broke? Or that in 1968, a man named Andre Gorz wrote a pamphlet arguing the power of the working class had come to an end... which he then couldn't get published because the whole country was on strike?

Assisted by performers Martin Hyder and Carla Mendonca, other editions tackled the sexual revolution, the Russian Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, the American Civil War and the evolution of man.