Barbara – the Stockport housewife extraordinaire comedy character played by Janice Connolly, has sold out the Aldridge theatre in the past and returns to the town on Wednesday 29th July with her hit Edinburgh Fringe Festival show. Described as “Character comedy at its best”, the show is suited to all audiences.

The event has been set up by the team at Aldridge Cinema with local comedy promoters, Comedy with Cake, who specialise in cleaned up comedy shows. The community cinema, which shows new and classic matinées on a Wednesday afternoon, is based at the Youth Theatre on Noddy Park Road and is looking forward to expanding their range of entertainment into live comedy.

Organisers Russell Smith and Julie Homfray have worked together on a range of events, from Brain Tumour fundraiser BENefit Gig to Halfords’ recent sales conference. This project marks the start of their social enterprise collaboration Aldridge Arts which aims to make entertainment and events more accessible to the local community.

Julie, an arts marketing and event specialist is looking forward to Barbara’s return. “She’s the comedy act people ask for most when we put on a show. She never fails to warm the cockles of your heart, and her show is clean and so suited to older audiences who wouldn’t normally go to live comedy. We’ll also be selling tea and cake at the interval in the tradition of Comedy with Cake”.

Aldridge Cinema is offering a summer season throughout July, continuing on 22nd July with Summer Holiday and the following week with The Last of the Blonde Bombshells. Tickets for the cinema matinee shows at 2.30pm are £5 including tea or coffee.