This year's Slapstick Festival has concluded in Bristol with stand-up, writer and actor Ben Elto being named as the Aardman Slapstick Comedy Legend 2025. He is pictured with his own hand-crafted personalised Morph.
Ben Elton received the award from Aardman co-founder Dave Sproxton and festival director Chris Daniels after a clips and chat show at Bristol Old Vic reviewing his career which was hosted by Adam Hills, presenter of Channel 4’s THE LAST LEG. It was given in recognition of Ben’s long career as a stand-up, his scripts for and occasional cameos in THE YOUNG ONES, FILTHY RICH & CATFLAP, BLACKADDER and UPSTART CROW and his collaborations with stars such as French & Saunders, Rik Mayall, Rowan Atkinson, Sir Stephen Fry and Dame Emma Thompson.
Many of his past associates supplied video messages for the event, among them Sir Michael Palin, David Mitchell, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Brian May and Sir Paul McCartney,
Slapstick’s Ben Elton: Comedy Legend event was the last of 35 put on as part of the festival’s 20th birthday edition. Other celebrity participants included Stephen K Amos, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Harry Enfield, Graeme Garden, Martin Freeman, Robin Ince, Lucy Porter and Rick Wakeman. In all, it is estimated that ticket sales well exceeded 5000 – 10 times the number taken up when the first Slapstick took place in 2005.
Slapstick is a not-for-profit venture. Its principal sponsors are Aardman Animation and, awarding funds from the National Lottery, the BFI.
Picture credit © David Betteridge/ Slapstick Festival
