Aldeburgh Comedy Weekend

Friday 16th – Sunday 18th October 2026

Following its triumphant launch in 2025, the Aldeburgh Comedy Weekend is back to bring you more star-studded joy and laughter. We have stand-up from Jack Dee, Ed Byrne, Kiri Pritchard-McLean and Mark Watson. The incomparable Jo Brand will be in conversation with Clive Anderson, while this year’s Lunchtime Achievement Award goes to John Lloyd, producer of Blackadder, Spitting Image and QI. Sofie Hagen, born in Denmark but relatable everywhere, is in our Have I Got New For You slot. Finally, there’s nothing like a dame, so don’t miss Dame Joanna Lumley choosing her favourite comedy film clips at the Aldeburgh Cinema.

Jack Dee: Jack’s Joke Show

Friday 16th October, 7pm

Jack’s dry humour and deadpan delivery have delighted us for thirty-five years. His tv career began in 1991 with Channel 4’s The Jack Dee Show and he’s gone on to feature in many acclaimed tv comedies, including the BBC2 sitcom Lead Balloon (which he co-wrote) and the hit ITV Show, Bad Move. In 2004, he was nominated for a BAFTA for Jack Dee Live At The Apollo. Five years later, he replaced Humphrey Lyttelton as chairman of the much-loved Radio 4 ‘antidote to panel games’, I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, so he’s now well on his way to being a National Treasure. (He’s still too young.) He also hosted the hugely popular The Apprentice: You’re Hired, and The Apprentice: You’re Fired (BBC2). We’re thrilled we’ve hired him to launch our Comedy Weekend. In the first half, he’ll do stand-up, then after the interval he’ll give us a generous taster from his new show, Jack’s Joke Show. Jokes and funny anecdotes have intrigued him for as long as he can remember, so he’ll be sharing the influences that have shaped his comedy career. It’s a nostalgic treat he promotes with the unforgettable selling point: ‘Guaranteed no new material’.

Tickets £30 available HERE

 

Ed Byrne Live

Friday 16th October, 10pm

Ed’s many tv appearances include hosting Live At The Apollo, being a regular panellist on Mock The Week, QI and Have I Got News For You, and taking part in Celebrity Mastermind and Celebrity Pointless. Go to YouTube and watch him at the Melbourne International Festival (2024), and you’ll see immediately that he’s a master of observational comedy. The most famous comedian ever to have studied Horticulture at the University of Strathclyde, Ed’s been a guest on The Graham Norton Show six times, so he knows how to sit back and join in the laughter. Now it’s your turn. This is your chance to see a comedian more used to playing venues six times the size of the Aldeburgh Jubilee Hall. In the words of The Scotsman, ‘It’s rare for a comic to merit the word ‘masterful’ but in this case it is no overstatement’, while Edinburgh Evening News described him as, ‘A great comedian making the simple sublime’. Let’s leave the last word to The Times: ‘This is just glorious – full of gnarly little joy pockets’. Little? Ed’s joy pockets are big enough for all of us.

Tickets £25 available HERE

 

 

Sofie Hagen: I Think Some Of This Is My Fault 

Saturday 17th October, 12pm

Sofie’s new to Aldeburgh so we’ve created a special Have I Got New For You slot in her honour. She’s from Denmark but learned English at the age of four, ‘just so I could go to Aldeburgh in 2026 and do stand-up’. Back in 2015, she won Best Newcomer at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with her show Bubblewrap – which Brian Logan of The Guardian called ‘compelling and beautifully constructed’. Since then, she’s gone from strength to strength, appearing at Festivals all over the world, including Melbourne, Montreal, Johannesburg and Berlin, and on tv for Netflix, BBC, and Comedy Central. She’s also gained a great reputation as a podcaster. She’s the creator and host of the very successful Who Hurt You?  – intimate, and funny conversations about why we are the way we are, with guests including Aisling Bea and Katherine Ryan. Sofie’s always tried to do the right thing, but in this show she asks herself the big question: Did I do the right thing or not? Sofie’s funny, fresh, thoughtful and endearing. Don’t miss her.

Tickets £20 available HERE

Mark Watson: Before It Overtakes Us

Saturday 17th October, 3pm

Radio 4 favourite, novelist, quizzer, stand-up, comedy writer, Taskmaster cheeky text icon – Mark Watson is the nation’s favourite comedy polymath. Who else has performed shows on a ferry, from a stream, on a train, and in a vaccination queue? Or completed a Comedy Marathon by performing non-stop for twenty-four hours? His stint at the Comedy Weekend is a mere sprint but, as Chortle said, ‘An hour or two of our limited span on Earth in his uplifting, witty company is time excellently  spent.’ In Before It Overtakes Us, he’ll be pondering the uncertain future facing humanity, the worst word he’s ever said in public and – of course – the current state of the UK sausage industry. You’ll probably recognise Mark from Mock The Week, Celebrity Pointless, Have I Got News For You, Would I Lie to You?, Live At The Apollo and QI. His Radio 4 series are myriad – including Mark Watson Makes The World Substantially Better, in which he looked at the human condition through the prism of the Seven Deadly Sins  (and a few Virtues) and Mark Watson Talks A Bit About Life assisted by long-time associates Tim Key and Tom Basden.

Tickets £25 available HERE

Good Evening, Jo Brand

Hosted by Clive Anderson

Saturday 17th October, 7pm

Jo was a pioneer. Britain just didn’t have female stand-ups when she and Victoria Wood started out; and, unlike Victoria, Jo couldn’t get any respite by sitting down at the piano. Famously a psychiatric nurse before she became a comedian, her poise under pressure from hecklers and blokes was fabulous – she could deal with anyone, and she did. TV soon followed: Friday Night Live, Have I Got News For You, Would I Lie To You, a guest appearance on Absolutely Fabulous, a ghost (sic) appearance in A Christmas Carole, and nine series of Great British Bake-Off. She was also the star and co-writer of Getting On, the award-winning series set in a geriatric ward, for which she won a BAFTA, and the feature film The More You Ignore Me (based on her novel), which the Daily Telegraph called ‘an appealing bitter-sweetly funny tale’. In conversation with Clive Anderson, she’ll be celebrating forty years in comedy, and taking questions from you. Forty years of being humane and funny and coping with marriage, parenting, and ageing. As she herself says, in her inimitable way: ‘I’m happily married. Unfortunately he’s not’.

CLIVE ANDERSON

Clive Anderson deserves an Aldeburgh Loyalty Card. In 2023, he brought his one-man show Me, Macbeth & I to the Jubilee Hall, while at last year’s Comedy Weekend he interviewed Alison Steadman. Long-term host of Radio 4’s Loose Ends, his lightning wit and spontaneity led to many unforgettable encounters on his tv talk shows. (Just ask Jeffrey Archer, Barry Gibb and Cher.) Clive won a British Comedy Award as Best Entertainment Presenter for Whose Line Is It Anyway, and has crossed tv paths with Jo Brand many times, as fellow guests on Have I Got News For You and QI.

Tickets: £30 available HERE

 

A Lunchtime Achievement Award: John Lloyd 

Hosted by Jon Canter

Sponsored by The Suffolk 

Sunday 18th October, 12pm

Legendary comedy producer John Lloyd has won more BAFTAs than anyone except Dame Judi Dench. But this is his first Lunchtime Achievement Award. We’ll be honouring Not The Nine O’Clock News, Blackadder, Spitting Image, and QI, all of which John originated.  On radio, he founded The News Huddlines, Quote…Unquote, and The News Quiz (now in its 49^th year), and produced the pilot of To The Manor Born, which went on to huge tv success; and, for seventeen series, he hosted Radio 4’s The Museum of Curiosity, which won the 2016 International Rose D’Or for the world’s best radio talk show. John directed many TV ads – notably the Barclaycard series that become the Johnny English movie franchise – and wrote and directed Genesis: Land of Confusion, which won a Grammy and was No 1 in MTV’s Greatest Music Videos of All Time. John’s writing credits include the first series of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy with Douglas Adams, and over 30 books (including The Meaning of Liff with Douglas, still in print after 42 years). His one-man shows, Liff of QI (2013) and Emperor of the Prawns (2015), sold out at the Edinburgh Fringe.

JON CANTER

Comedy writer, playwright and novelist Jon Canter co-founded the Aldeburgh Comedy Weekend, and has lived in the town for over thirty years. His Radio 4 comedy Believe It, starring Richard Wilson, won Best Scripted Comedy at the BBC Audio Awards.  Last year’s Weekend featured the stage premiere of his tragi-comic play A Short Gentleman, based on his novel, and starring Michael Fenton Stevens. With John Lloyd, his contemporary in the Cambridge Footlights, he co-wrote Afterliff – The New Dictionary Of Things There Should Be Words For.

Tickets: £20 available HERE

Kiri Pritchard-McLean Live 

Sunday 18th October, 3pm

Kiri is a comedy star bringing charisma, fizzing comic energy and acutely observed storytelling to every show she does. Her previous show Peacock,  in which she describes her journey to becoming a foster parent, received multiple 5-star reviews. It blended her signature sardonic, no-nonsense humour with moving social commentary . (She also wore a dazzling sequinned peacock jumpsuit for the tour.) Kiri has appeared on many of the UK’s most popular entertainment shows, including Have I Got News For You, 8 Out Of 10 Cats Does Countdown, QI, Frankie Boyle’s New World Order, and Live At The Apollo, which she hosted. Kiri’s comedy tackles thorny subjects with humour and grace, often in a deeply personal way. You may well have heard her on radio  – Kiri has her own weekly show on BBC Radio Wales, and she regularly co-hosts Loose Ends. She was also the host of Newsjack and has guest-hosted The News Quiz. Kiri also hosts her own Radio 4 panel show, Best Medicine, which was commissioned for a second series – both series are now available on BBC Sounds. An opportunity to see a rising star up close and personal, and possibly in a sequinned peacock jumpsuit.

Tickets: £25 available HERE

Aldeburgh Cinema: Desert Island Comedy Flicks with Dame Joanna Lumley 

Hosted by Clive Tulloh

Sunday 18th October, 5.30pm

Actress, activist, presenter and author, Joanna Lumley’s come a long way since her early film role in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, in which she was credited simply as ‘The English Girl’. Made a Dame for her services to drama, entertainment and charity, she’s now an English Woman admired everywhere for her eloquence, wit and poise. Post Bond-Girl, she went on to appear in Curse Of The Pink Panther, Shirley Valentine, James And The Giant Peach, and The Wolf Of Wall Street. On tv she went from Purdey in The New Avengers, and Sapphire in Sapphire And Steel, to the immortal Patsy in Absolutely Fabulous, for which she was awarded two BAFTAS. She re-united with Jennifer Saunders for Jam & Jerusalem and then with Saunders and Lucy Punch for the current big hit, Amandaland. (She and Punch first met when they played stepmother and daughter in the Cinderella satire, Ella Enchanted.) At the Aldeburgh Cinema she’ll be choosing clips from her favourite comedy films in Desert Island Comedy Flicks, a variant on the long-running Desert Island Flicks strand, which has featured Lenny Henry, Richard Curtis & Emma Freud, and Michael Palin.

CLIVE TULLOH

TV producer Clive Tulloh and Joanna Lumley are no strangers to Desert Islands. For the sake of a TV show, Clive once marooned her on just such an Island, where she had to live alone for ten days (occasionally visited by Tulloh for updates). Since then, they’ve made over thirty hours of travel documentaries together. Shortly after leaving Aldeburgh, they’ll be heading to South America for their new ITV series, Joanna Lumley’s Argentina.

Tickets: £30 (£25 Friends of Aldeburgh Cinema) available through the Aldeburgh Cinema box office HERE or by phoning the Aldeburgh Cinema on 01728 454 884.

Tickets available through the links above, by phoning 01728 454022, or in person Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 10-12pm at the AJH corner office.

Tuesday 27th October 2026, 10:00 – 10:45, 11:00 – 11:45, 12:00 – 12:45 

Tickets: Pay what you can (suggested £5 per person)

Tickets are available HERE, by phoning 01728 454022, or in person Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 10-12pm at the AJH corner office.

Curious about learning an instrument? Come along to our family fun, hands-on Come and Play event and discover the joy of making music together.

Each 45-minute session is led by friendly music staff from Suffolk County Music Service, with small groups (max 15 participants) so everyone gets a chance to try instruments up close. Spend 10 minutes at each station (woodwind, brass, strings & percussion) experimenting with different sounds, then finish by choosing your favourite instrument and learning a simple tune together as a group.

Perfect for beginners, curious minds, and anyone who wants to experience the thrill of playing music for the very first time. No experience needed, just bring your enthusiasm!

Everyone age 4+ welcome.

Session Times:
10am – 10.45am / 11am – 11.45am / 12pm – 12.45pm
Pay what you can (suggested £5 per person). Booking is encouraged as spaces are limited.

Thursday 29th October 2026 10am – 4pm

Doors open at 10.00am

Tickets: Pay what you can

Please select a time slot between 10am – 3pm.

Tickets are available HERE  by phoning 01728 454022, or in person Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 10-12pm at the AJH corner office.

A family event for Halloween.  From witches’ frogs to coiled snakes, scary spiders and ‘mini-beast’ reptiles, you are invited to a Halloween gathering of fantastic beasts and exotic visitors from around the world.  Come and meet an extraordinary collection of mammals, invertebrates, reptiles and amphibians in a day-long ‘open-house’ with the opportunity to get close up to the animals and learn more about them from Our Animal World’s experts.

There will be a Curiosity Corner of reptile skins, feathers, skeletons, insects in resin, fossils and much more to be explored with our magnifying glasses and microscopes when you’re not getting close to these amazing animals. Dressing up encouraged!

Open to all, but we ask that any under 18s are accompanied by an adult at all time.

www.ouranimalworld.com
www.facebook.com/OurAnimalWorld22

Friday 30th October 2026, 7pm

Tickets: £17 (£12 for under 21’s)

Tickets available HERE , by phoning 01728 454022, or in person Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 10-12pm at the AJH corner office.

Number 17 Friar Street was a modest two storey house of Georgian construction in a lonely corner of a forgotten market town in Norfolk. The house became unexpectedly available at short notice and seemed the perfect location for me to complete a volume of short stories, woefully overdue, to be ready for publication by Christmas. Surely nothing here would distract, disturb or alarm, not a sound would break the evening silence, no footsteps would echo in the cobbled streets, and nothing save the weather would disrupt one’s sleep in the small hours.

“I became aware that there was a mystery attached to No 17 that the townsfolk weren’t keen to talk about. It was only Mabel who was obsessed with finding the truth.
I met Mabel when I arrived to take possession of the house in late September. She was standing in the street staring at an upstairs window deep in thought and quite oblivious to my presence. “Do you know the house?” I asked. Without altering her gaze she replied, “I know something of its history. You mustn’t even think of lodging here.” Smiling condescendingly at her, I said, “Dry rot? Rats? Or a ghost perhaps?” as I turned the key in the lock…”
Scares, shocks, and a spine-chilling twist in the tale await those brave enough to come with us to Friar Street. But there will also be humour, haunting live music & a heart-warming affirmation of undying love and loyalty.

“I can think of no other company that swings back and forth, from tragedy to comedy, with such unapologetic aplomb…bold & brilliantly strange”. David Vass (Diss Express) reviewing our 2025 production, The Tales Our Mother Told.

“A proper ghost story with a suitably claustrophobic lighthouse setting, there are some genuine moments that make you jump, performed by three excellent actors….Pat Whymark’s excellent script gives the actors much to play with. Characterisation is strong, with highly evocative music and projections.” Paul T Davies (Keep Colchester Cool), reviewing our 2024 production, Ghost Of The Toll Point Light.

Running time is 2 hours including 20 min interval.
Age recommendation 15+