Comic Strip founder Peter Richardson heads to Norden Farm for special evening

Fans of groundbreaking British television comedy can look back at the origins and influence of The Comic Strip when Norden Farm Centre for the Arts hosts a retrospective evening next month.

An Evening of Comic Strip with Peter Richardson and Guest(s) takes place on Tuesday, 6 October at 8pm.

The event pairs screenings of the early Channel 4 comedy programme with a live in-person question-and-answer session featuring Comic Strip co-founder and director Peter Richardson alongside actor and impressionist Phil Cornwell.

The Comic Strip Presents… served as a launchpad for an influential generation of alternative comedy performers. The collective regularly featured household names including Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, and Alexei Sayle.

The screening programme features a dedicated tribute sequence celebrating the late Rik Mayall, showing highlights from Bad News, Mr Jolly Lives Next Door, and A Fistful of Travellers Cheques.

Audiences will also see The Red Nose of Courage, a political satire in which former prime minister John Major, played by Edmondson, leaves a circus career behind to become a member of parliament. Still pressured by his circus manager father, played by Sayle, Major is forced to perform evening clown routines while running the country, before falling for the Leader of the Opposition, played by French.

The evening includes selected scenes from BBC comedy Stella Street, starring Cornwell and the late John Sessions, followed by the live discussion with Richardson and Cornwell.

Also on the bill is Four Men in a Car, following four salesmen on a disastrous drive to an industry conference in Swindon.

The journey descends into chaos through road rage, severe snowstorms, food poisoning, and an encounter with an armed farmer’s wife.

The film features Mayall, Nigel Planer, Edmondson, and Richardson.