Slapstick 2017 programme unveiled

Cold, grey and miserable, January is the cruellest month. But at least we have something to look forward to here in Bristol. Each year, the Slapstick Festival perks us up with its winning blend of silent and classic screen comedy. Running from Wednesday 18 – Sunday 22 January, next year’s 13th event promises to be another cracker, bringing back many old friends and introducing some Slapstick virgins.

It is inevitable that with each passing year more of our best-loved mirth-makers will have, literally or figuratively, slipped on their final banana skins. Slapstick 2017 celebrates three of them: Rik Mayall, Victoria Wood and Pierre Etaix.

Prepare to feel very old indeed as you realise that 2017 marks the 35th anniversary of the first broadcast of that classic Bristol-filmed student comedy series, The Young Ones. Making their debut appearances at Slapstick, Nigel Planer (Neil), Alexei Sayle (the Belowski family) and co-writer Lise Mayer will be joining Marcus Brigstocke at the Bristol Old Vic to revisit the sights, sounds and smells of early 1980s Bristol. If that’s not enough Rik Mayall for you, Robin Ince and his Variety Radio podcast co-host Michael Legge pay tribute to his fabulously juvenile brand of humour in The People’s Poet: A Celebration of the Stickiest Bogeys of Rik Mayall, which promises a mix of familiar and unfamiliar clips.

Elsewhere, Slapstick presents a celebration of an old pal of the Festival. “We’re especially pleased to be offering a tribute to Victoria Wood,” says Festival director Chris Daniels. “She was a great friend to Slapstick, stepping in at extremely short notice to host our Gala in 2013 and later returning to host an event celebrating the comedy work of Gloria Swanson.  From what we learned of her then, we’re sure she’ll be pleased that we are remembering her with laughter, and with the help of two women following in her comedy writing and performing footsteps – Lucy Porter and Pippa Evans.” 

Pierre Etaix (1928-2016) may not have the same pulling power, but there’s an opportunity to find out why this silent comedy great bagged the Aardman/Slapstick Award for Visual Comedy back in 2012 with a rare screening of his classic The Suitor.

Roy Hudd makes his Slapstick debut for a career-spanning conversation. Also popping her Slapstick cherry is stand-up Shazia Mirza, who presents the latest in the Festival’s celebrations of silent comediennes. This year it’s the turn of Annette Benson, with a full screening of the recently resorted 1928 love triangle comedy, Shooting Stars.

Already announced are Slapstick’s annual Colston Hall Silent Comedy Gala, which is hosted by Rory Bremner and features a screening of Harold Lloyd’s brilliant The Freshman, and a post-referendum celebration of European silent comedy. Elsewhere in the packed Slapstick 2017 programme, you can find Barry Cryer reminiscing about his old chum Tommy Cooper and Neil Innes unearthing a long-lost vintage TV performance by the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band. Oh, and if you’ve ever wondered about the connection between Buster Keaton and Samuel Beckett (and who hasn’t?), all is revealed with a screening of the unique Keaton-starring Film, for which Beckett wrote his only screenplay.

Tickets for most Slapstick events go on sale on Friday, November 18. Slapstick Sunday events at the Bristol Old Vic on Jan 22 (including the Young Ones celebration) are already on sale here. Go here for the full Slapstick 2017 programme.