Revealed: Fab line-up for Harrogate Comedy Festival 2016

The highlight of last year's festival was comic superstar Jimmy Carr's show at the Royal Hall but the eighth annual Harrogate Comedy Festival is working hard to top it.

Running from from October 5-18, this year's line-up includes the likes of household names such as Ross Noble, Marcus Brigstocke and Russell Kane as well as fast rising acts such as The Pajama Men and Adam Hills.

When you throw in the likes of Rich Hall, Andrew Lawrence, Shappi Khorsandi, Jason Byrne, Jo Caulfield, Mark Watson and the winner of the 2015 Fosters Edinburgh Comedy Award, Sam Simmons and it makes Harrogate the comedy capital of the north - for October at least.

Organised as always by Harrogate Theatre, which is also the lead venue for much of this fortnight-long festival, Ross Noble's star turn will take place at the Royal Hall on Saturday, October 1.

Geordie stand-up Noble, has received huge critical acclaim since he became a Perrier Award nominee at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1999.

A man who tends to come up with a new live show each year, the only chance of catching him on TV is the odd guest appearance on the likes of QI or Room 101.

Back in 2007, he famously was voted in tenth place in Channel 4's Worlds 100 Greatest Stand-Up’s.

Comedian, author, scriptwriter and presenter Russell Kane has shot to fame in recent years after winning the Edinburgh Comedy Award in 2010, the successor to the Perrier Awards.

His appearance at this year's Harrogate Comedy Festival takes place at the Royal Hall on Sunday, October 16.

The London-born comic has recently been on TV in his own BBC show, Stupid Man Smart Phone which sees him dropped in the wilds in the vein of a totally amateur Bear Grylls.

The Big Weekend on Saturday, October 8 and Sunday, October 9 will be a weekend-long treat of stand-up comedy from Andy Hamilton, Felicity Ward, and James Acaster alongside a kids comedy club, a comedy quiz, live local music in our Circle Bar, a Sunday afternoon set from Fake Thackray, a hangover busting comedy panel, an art exhibition, and more.

What’s more there’s the weird and wonderful Kill The Beast with Don’t Wake the Damp, ingenious sketch group Gein’s Family Gift Shop, silent comedian The Boy with Tape on His Face – as seen on America’s Got Talent in May - and the spectacularly surreal Pajama Men.

And Harrogate Comedy Festival's fifth Comedian of the Year competition will also take place.

Comedy Festival Programmer Emma McDowell said: “This year we’ve got a mix of the topical, the terrifying, the political, the polarising, the edgy, the excruciating, the eccentric, the weird and the wonderful, the wacky, the simply hilarious and the downright silly.

"It’s an ecclectic programme with a real international flavour and we hope that more people than ever will come to the theatres, try something new or see their favourites."

Tickets for all the shows are on sale now at 01423 502116 or online at www.harrogatetheatre.co.uk