COMEDY performer Tim Brooke-Taylor will launch the next Thornbury Arts Festival in a show that sees him team up with Bristol writer and broadcaster Chris Serle.

Tim, a regular panellist on the BBC Radio 4 favourite 'I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue', is set to chat with Chris about his long career, which took off with the Cambridge Footlights when he was a student.

Well known as one of TV’s 'The Goodies', he will tell stories about his life in comedy, adding in anecdotes about many of the people he has appeared with over the years.

The show 'Oh Goody!' has been booked for the opening night of the ten-day festival next spring, with Tim’s hesitant start as a schoolboy magician, his directing of Orson Welles in a feature film and an encounter with Eric Morecambe on a beach in Portugal among the likely tales.

Signing up Chris – one of the 'That’s Life!' TV show presenters - and Tim is one of the first moves by the team of volunteers behind the annual arts festival as they put together their 2016 programme.

It will run from April 15-24, with details of other events to be announced as the schedule develops, but it will include a mix of music, drama, lunchtime talks and events for children at a number of venues in the town.

It will be followed by the popular Severn Vale Arts Trail, which comes under the festival umbrella and involves dozens of artists displaying their work in their studios or at shared exhibition sites.

The festival’s artistic director, Shirley Sharp, said: “Having had another successful festival this year, we are now getting on with planning the 2016 event and are really looking forward to Tim Brooke-Taylor and Chris Serle coming to Thornbury.”