Morecambe Comedy Festival

The week-long Morecambe Comedy Festival opens on 21 November with headliner Steve Royle - the comedian currently portraying Eric Morecambe on stage in The Last Laugh. Steve Royle has appeared on Live at The Palladium and Peter Kay's Phoenix Nights Live, and was voted Best Comic at the UK Pantomime awards and is a Britain’s Got Talent finalist.

On the same bill at Morecambe Winter Gardens will be Brennan Reece, one of the hottest rising stars on the circuit, an Edinburgh Best Newcomer Nominee and English Comedian Of The Year Winner. Dubbed ‘a teenage Alan Bennett’ (The Skinny), Brennan delights in his Northern working class wordsmithery.

Daliso Chaponda, the brilliant African comic with his own BBC Radio 4 show Citizen Of Nowhere and regular appearances on QI and Have I Got News For You, completes the line up, with the compere for the evening Pam Ford telling tales of getting old disgracefully.

The following Saturday (28) will see two stars of modern British alternative comedy take to the Winter Gardens stage. Legendary director of Bottom, Red Dwarf and numerous other British comedies, Ed Bye, will appear in conversation with Paul Jackson, the producer and director behind iconic shows including The Young Ones and The Two Ronnies for an evening of screenings and chat reflecting on legendary TV moments.

Free workshops in the run up will give budding comics the chance to create their own stand-up routine and perform at Best of Morecambe community showcase at Morecambe Town Hall on 27 November.

Children’s workshops will take place at Morecambe Library.

During the week, there will be award winning fringe shows with local support at the West End Playhouse. Best Comedy Show award winner at last year’s fringe festival, Mel Bryon, returns for a good old rant (23), and musical maestro Stylophobia brings a surreal mix of music and comedy (24), with a final fringe performer to be announced (25). Just The Tonic, the company behind comedy clubs across the Midlands and a regular at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, take the floor on 26 November at The Platform, with names to be announced.

Free caricaturing and street circus workshops will bring even more fun during the festival week.

Free comedy-themed SEN workshops will offer children the chance to craft a comic; create silly songs; play around with jokes, sketches and story-telling or learn a magic trick.