Rob Brydon, Stewart Lee, Henning Wehn and more

Rob Brydon, Stewart Lee and Henning Wehn have been added to the programme of next year’s Slapstick festival.

The event, which celebrates silent, classic and visual screen comedy, is moving online for 2021, and will take place later in the year than usual – March 1 to 7

Festival director Chris Daniels said: ‘We’re looking forward to returning soon to staging live events in venues but, for now, moving online is the safest, most reliable and cost-effective way to mount a joyously varied programme.

‘There are other advantages, too. For instance, we can involve overseas speakers and celebrities whose location or packed diaries would make a trip to Bristol very difficult and we can build on the international connections made during our crowdfunding campaign by opening up the festival to comedy fans worldwide."

Other confirmed events include:

• Comedy conversations with Rob Brydon, Bernie Clifton, Graeme Garden and Robin
• The granddaughters of W.C Fields and Harold Lloyd sharing personal memories
• A rare French silent starring  Josephine Baker
• Live accompaniment to newly-found or restored silents by Dutch pianist Daan van den Hurk
• Stand-up Lucy Porter celebrating the comedy work of Clara Bow and Constance Talmadge
• A tour of celluloid music hall with the US-based film history experts Steve Massa and Ben Model

Passes to all events are available from slapstick.org.uk priced £39 (or £20 for under 24s). Tickets for individual events will go on sale when the full programme is announced in early January.

Daniels added: ‘As for so many other live events producers this has been a very difficult year, but we’ve been deeply moved by the terrific level of support we have received as we tried to solve the financial black hole caused by us having to cancel all of our planned fundraisers.’

Published: 10 Dec 2020