...with a 'carpet'

Britain’s comedy greats are to be celebrated in a major new piece of public art to be installed in Blackpool.

Famous quotes, sketches and catchphrases from the likes of Morecambe and Wise, ken Dodd and Dad’s Army will be set in granite in the resort’s planned Comedy Carpet.

Dubbed Blackpool’s answer to the Hollywood Walk Of Fame, it will run from the tower to a new open-air performance space on the town’s headland. The total cost of the project is £14million

Doug Garrett, chief executive of regeneration company ReBlackpool, has previously said: ‘The Comedy Carpet is going to be our Angel of the North -but horizontal. It's that sort of impact.

‘The quality of what's going in and the detail that is achieved will be something talked about far and wide and will be a reason to come to Blackpool to talk about and see how it ties in with this wonderful setting.

Work is already under way on the construction, which is expected to be finished by May.

Comedy biographer Graham McCann, who is helping compile the quotes to be used, said: 'There will be lines from British stand-up comedians, British sitcoms and catchphrases. The carpet will resemble a kind of comedy mosaic. They have really done it in a very imaginative way. It is very striking.'

The Comedy Carpet is being designed by Gordon Young, the man behind the surroundings for Eric Morecambe’s statue that provides such a tourist draw in the town which gave him his name.

Published: 2 Aug 2010