Blackpool Grand is determined to spread a little happiness by the seaside this year, with an impressive season of top comedy names.
Omid Djalili is back on stage in his provocative Good Times tour on February 13; Ed Byrne presents his masterclass in observational comedy, If I’m Honest (February 18); Katherine Ryan brings her perspective on love, life and what it means to be a Missus (February 27); camp comic Julian Clary sallies forth with Born to Mince (April 8) and Mancunian stand-up star Jason Manford is back in Blackpool with his new show Like Me (May 1).
Rob Beckett arrives in his new stand-up show Wallop! (May 27-28); Count Arthur Strong brings his eccentric charm to his 20th anniversary tour And This Is Me! (May 29); there’s daft nonsense from Mock The Week star Milton Jones in Milton Impossible (October 13); Saturday night TV legend Harry Hill is starching up his big collar for silly spectacular Pedigree Fun! (October 15) and it’s never too early to book for mild-mannered funny man Jon Richardson in his new show The Knitwit (February 3, 2023).
The Grand also has a double act of comedy dramas that fit the bill. DIY disasters and misunderstandings are on the cards as 1970s TV character Frank Spencer returns in Some Mother’s Do ‘Ave ‘Em, starring Joe Pasquale (I’m A Celebrity, The Producers) and Suzie Blake (The Victoria Wood Show, Coronation St) from May 10-14 (also at St Helen's Theatre Royal in August, info here). The Rise and Fall of Little Voice is then in the Blackpool spotlight from June 13-18, with Oldham's Shobna Gulati (Dinnerladies, Coronation St) and Ian Kelsey (Emmerdale, Casualty) in Jim Cartwright’s gritty, witty Northern fairytale (more info and tickets for various northern tour dates here).