Hugh Bonneville to host Slapstick screen comedy festival’s 2024 Gala

The multiple award-winning screen and stage actor, Hugh Bonneville is to host the gala evening of silent film comedies and live music which will be the centrepiece of next year’s 20^th edition of Slapstick, the UK’s biggest celebration of silent and classic screen comedy.

Bookings for the event - at The Beacon in central Bristol on Friday 16 February - will open at 10am on Friday 8 September with an early bird discount on offer for bookings made before the end of the month.

The Gala will feature DOWNTON ABBEY, THE GOLD and PADDINGTON films star Hugh Bonneville introducing a triple bill of laugh-out-loud silent comedy films, each showing on a giant screen with live musical accompaniment.

Topping the film bill will be Charlie Chaplin’s 1925 masterpiece THE GOLD RUSH, accompanied by the 16-piece Bristol Ensemble. Joining it in the line-up will be the 1922 short COPS, which finds an impressively acrobatic Buster Keaton being chased by a city’s entire police force, and BIG BUSINESS (1929), starring Laurel & Hardy as hilariously incompetent Christmas tree salesmen.

The Gala will be Hugh Bonneville’s first visit to Slapstick and the festival’s first event in the newly refurbished main hall at The Beacon.

Slapstick festival director Chris Daniels says: “The gala is always a highlight of our festivals, but we’ve greatly missed being able to stage them in a hall big enough to meet the demand for places. It is a special delight, therefore, that our 20^th Gala is back where they began and to have Hugh Bonneville, a screen comedy superfan, as our host.”

Tickets are priced at £16 to £55 with the chance to claim a £4 discount on bookings made before midnight on Saturday 30 September.

As a mood setter, the Bristol-based Shanghai Shuffle jazz band will be playing music from the silent film era in The Beacon’s foyer pre-show.

Slapstick 2024 will take place from Wednesday 14 February to Sunday 18 February at venues including The Beacon, St George’s and Watershed. Details of the full Slapstick 2024 programme are due to be announced in mid-October.

To keep up to date with Slapstick news, sign-up for the free e-bulletins via www.slapstick.org.uk or find Slapstick Festival accounts on various social platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.

Slapstick is a not-for-profit organisation. The festival’s principal funders are Aardman Animations (www.aardman.com) and the British Film Institute, awarding funds from the National Lottery (www.bfi.org.uk).