Slapstick unveils 2024 lineup

Unveiling its 2024 programme, Slapstick is promising more than 30 events at venues across Bristol and visits from Sir Michael Palin, Samira Ahmed, Alasdair Beckett-King, Hugh Bonneville, Marcus Brigstocke, Graeme Garden, Harry Hill, Robin Ince, Robert Lindsay, Sylvester McCoy, Christina Newland, Lucy Porter and Tim Vine (to name just some).

As ever, live music will accompany the festival’s traditional package of rare, rediscovered &/or re-issued silent comedies, including films from the 1920s featuring Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Laurel & Hardy, Beatrice Lillie, Marie Provost and Norma Talmadge among many others.   But the programme also takes in a collection of spoof or wacky horror flicks starring such scare stars as Lon Chaney Jnr. It also sees the return of the Gala to the refurbished hall where it started;  regional premieres of films from Harry Hill and Tim Vine; look backs at two once hugely popular sitcoms, a reassessment of the political clout of The Goodies and an award for Robert Lindsay and a medal for the most darkly clownish Doctor Who.

Highlights will include:

• PADDINGTON films star Hugh Bonneville hosting the Slapstick Silent Comedy Film Gala in the new-look Bristol Beacon’s main hall where films on the big screen will include Charlie Chaplin’s THE GOLD RUSH accompanied by the Bristol Ensemble.
• Sir Michael Palin and Robert Lindsay revisiting G.B.H – the Alan Bleasdale political comedy in which they both starred, prior to a separate clips-rich event at which Lindsay will receive the Aardman/Slapstick Comedy Award honouring his many other comedy performances including in MY FAMILY and CITIZEN SMITH.
• Harry Hill and Tim Vine introducing the South West premieres of their newest films plus the regional premiere of a delightful new documentary starring Stan Laurel’s touring hat, ahead of a Marcus Brigstocke-hosted chat with its makers.
• Alasdair Beckett-King and Robin Ince hosting a screening of the seminal comedy horror THE CAT AND CRADLE to kick-start a strand of chills and chortles events that will also round up a collection of strange early shorts; a ‘Spooktacular’ live broadcast from New York; stories of when stunts go wrong and a family-friendly screening of ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN.
• A TARDIS-style look back at the long and varied comedy career of Sylvester McCoy, known to millions as the seventh Doctor in the BBC’s DOCTOR WH0 series and as a wizard in three of Peter Jackson’s LORD OF THE RINGS films.
• Broadcaster Samira Ahmed re-assessing with Graeme Garden whether the 70s/80s series THE GOODIES he co-created had more of an impact on social consciences than was realised at the time.
• A fresh look at the made-in-Bristol 1970s sitcom BIG JIM & THE FIGARO CLUB – hailed in reviews as ‘an unsung masterpiece’ and a lost ‘gem’, with some of its stars and its producer.

Slapstick’s director Chris Daniels said: “February can be a miserable month, regardless of what’s happening on the world stage, but we’re certain the 20^th edition of Slapstick contains enough variety and reasons to laugh out loud that it will lighten the mood of everyone who attends.”

Full details of the Slapstick 2024 programme and booking options are available on the festival’s website: www.slapstick.org.uk.  Slapstick news can also be found via the festival’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts.

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