A NEW season ‘jam packed’ with award-winning artists and entertaining shows has been announced by Otley Courthouse.

The arts venue’s Autumn/Winter 2019 programme is crammed with a variety of music, comedy, theatre, screenings and family shows.

Forthcoming musical highlights will include performances by Ronnie Lane’s band Slim Chance, Fairport Convention and Matthews Southern Comfort’s Iain Matthews, and Billy Mitchell and Warhorse Song man Bob Fox, as part of The Pitmen Poets.

Also performing over the coming months will be Ashley Hutchings with The Albion Christmas Band, guitar legend Martyn Joseph, Paul Lamb and The Kingsnakes, Jaki Graham and more.

Looking ahead to Christmas time, meanwhile, and the Courthouse will this year hold its first ever, week-long festive pantomime when Fidget Theatre brings its production of Jack Frost to town.

Theatre lovers should be in for a treat too with performances of The Turn of the Screw by Box Tale Soup, The Body Snatcher by Thunder Road Theatre, and The Hound of the Baskervilles by Northern Stage all in the line-up.

A Courthouse spokeswoman said: “If that wasn’t enough we also have some of the best comedians around including Justin Moorhouse, Arthur Smith, Carl Hutchinson and Arabella Weir.

“Our live and recorded screening programme goes from strength to strength too, with National Theatre Live’s 10th Birthday Season including A Midsummer Night’s Dream, One Man Two Guvnors, Hansard and Noel Coward’s Present Laughter. Plus, our programme wouldn’t be complete without our annual Science Festival which this year includes presenter of CBeebies’ Do You Know?, Maddie Moate, Blue Peter science guy Greg Foot, and BBC 2’s Grow Your Own Drugs presenter James Wong.”

The cover star of the new programme is comedian Justin Moorhouse who is bringing his Northern Joker show to the Courthouse on Friday, October 25.

The preview describes the show as a humorous examination of doubt - with Justin ‘not certain about anything apart from his uncertainty’ in a volatile world.

It continues: “On top of this the golden age of the Northern straight white male comedian has gone the way of the dinosaurs. How will he adapt if he wants to survive? What next for this Northern Joker? What can he talk to his daughter about now she cares little for Dennis the Menace and the Bash St Kids?”

Fore more details visit www.otleycourthouse.org.uk, call (01943) 467466 or pop into the Courthouse on Courthouse Street.