CLASS OF 2026

Mark Sheridan

MARK SHERIDAN

Before streaming, television, radio and even somebody's uncle putting clips on Facebook, there was music hall. And Sunderland had Mark Sheridan.

Born Frederick Shaw in Hendon, Sunderland, in 1864, Sheridan started work on the docks before finding his way into theatre in Newcastle and eventually onto stages across Britain and overseas. By the turn of the century he had become one of the country's major music hall performers, known for comic patter, songs and pantomime.

Then in 1909 he introduced I Do Like to Be Beside the Seaside.

Yes. That one.

The song became an enormous hit and somehow survived the entire twentieth century. More than a hundred years later, people who have never heard Mark Sheridan's name can still sing at least the first line. That's an impressive level of cultural trespassing.

Sheridan recorded more than fifty songs and spent decades performing around Britain, becoming one of the biggest comedy and music hall stars of his era.

The North East comedy story didn't begin when somebody first put a microphone in the corner of a pub. People from this region had been making audiences laugh professionally for generations.

Mark Sheridan is here to make sure we remember that.