A stellar line-up of the UK’s best-known entertainers will take part in an online variety show on Sunday 27 September (7.30pm start) as part of efforts to stave off the financial crisis facing Bristol’s annual Slapstick festival of screen comedy because of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Sanjeev Bhaskar, Frankie Boyle, Jo Brand, Rob Brydon, Stephen Fry, Matt Lucas, Lee Mack, Stephen Merchant and Michael Palin are just some of the stars lined up to appear in Slapstick’s one-off BIG COMEDY NIGHT IN, being hosted live by comedian and broadcaster Robin Ince.

The online show is being put on to help Slapstick plug the gap caused to its finances because measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 mean the festival team has been unable to stage any of the fundraisers it usually relies on to meet festival costs. 

Slapstick director Chris Daniels explains: “Festivals like Slapstick are expensive to stage and in the past we’ve usually managed to raise the bulk of the costs ourselves from a year-round programme of one-off events and ticket sales.  But Covid-19’s shutdown of venues has put a halt to this, creating an unexpected and potentially devastating hole in our finances. 

Touchingly, our celebrity friends have proved as keen as we are to keep Slapstick going and growing. Their support means Slapstick’s Big Comedy Night In will boast a dream line-up of talent, with more than 20 of the UK’s best-loved entertainers due to deliver up jokes, stories, memories, upbeat messages and much more during one unmissable, never-to-be-repeated, evening”.

Among the contributions already recorded are a reading by Sir Michael Palin of a trio of comic poems;  Frankie Boyle providing advance extracts from his next book, The Future of British Politics (due out in November) and revelations from Stephen Merchant about his Bristol childhood.

Places at the donate-to-view event need to be booked in advance via https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/slapsticks-big-comedy-night-in or by visiting the festival’s website: www.slapstick.org.uk.