These are our picks of the best comedy, musical and entertainment acts coming to Lancashire’s threatres over the next two months.
From stunning stage shows to spectacles of space, ghosts and magic – and even a famous celebrity ‘baring all’ on stage – these are 20 ‘feel good’ events guaranteed to brighten up your New Year.
1. Skies and Pies with the Starsmith
January 4, January 18 & February 15. Brockholes Nature Reserve, Preston New Road, Preston. Tickets £22.50. Join an exciting talk by local Astro photographer, Lee Hunt, where he will take you on a virtual journey through the night skies of Lancashire, from our planetary neighbours to distant galaxies. The talk will be split into two halves, with a pie and peas supper served during the break. If the sky is clear, there will be an opportunity to view some of the wonders of our night skies with Starsmith telescopes. Photo: Lancashire Post
2. Floodlit Swans at WWT Martin Mere Wetland Centre
January 9 - 30. WWT Martin Mere, Fish Lane, Burscough. Tickets adults £13.10 / children £8.50 / concession £11.80. Have an unforgettable experience and see one of nature's most beautiful spectacles of up to 2,000 whooper swans shine bright by floodlight on the water. Visit Martin Mere after hours at one of the floodlit swan evenings and get a fantastic view of wild swans and ducks from the Discovery Hide. You'll be joined by a warden who will provide a fascinating live commentary about the whooper swans and the migratory journey that they make to the reserve every year as they spend winter in the UK. Photo: Lancashire Post
3. The Ghost Train
January 10, 11, 12 and 13. Preston Playhouse Theatre, Preston. Adults £12.00 / Concessions £11.00. Presented by Preston Drama Club, Arnold Ridley’s classic comedy-thriller, The Ghost Train, finds six passengers stranded late at night in the waiting-room of an isolated Cornish railway station. Ignoring the ghostly tales and dire warnings of the stationmaster, they decide to stay where they are until morning – with terrifying consequences. Finally, all is revealed and the details of a fiendish plot are laid bare. Photo: Lancashire Post
4. UK West Coast Folk Festival
January 12 - 14. Winter Gardens, Blackpool. ONLINE PRICES: Weekend Ticket £185.20. A 3-day folk festival with 3 stages and 33 acts, including the incredible Steve Harley Acoustic Band, Eddi Reader, Tom Robinson Band, Cara Dillon, The Webb Sisters, Dean Friedman, Kiki Dee & Carmelo Luggeri, Bella Hardy and many more. Photo: Lancashire Post
5. Jim Davidson Swimming Against the Tide!
Friday, January 19. 3 Church Street, Blackpool. Tickets £29.50. Join one of Britain's best loved comedians on his "marathon swim as he resists the pull of the under-current of radical sensibilities of the woke minority." Slap on the Goose fat and battle through the dark and murky woke infested waters and join him for an evening of rip-roaring grown-up comedy. Photo: Lancashire Post
6. Sarah Millican
January 19 & 20. King George's Hall, Blackburn. Tickets £34.50. When Sarah Millican was a bairn, she wouldn’t say boo to a goose. Quiet at school, not many friends, no boobs till she was 16. Now? NOW she is loud, with good friends, a cracking rack and goose booing all over the shop. In Late Bloomer, Sarah’s brand-new stand-up show, she explores how one became the other. Plus, lots of stuff about dinners and lady gardens. Come along, laugh at her, with her, beside her. Photo: Lancashire Post