Tim Healy and Ray Laidlaw are ready to raise funds again for budding North-East performers.

THE next Newcastle City Hall entertainment extravaganza, to raise money for the Sunday for Sammy Trust in memory of the late actor Sammy Johnson, will take place on February 12.

A star-studded line-up of famous faces – and at least one surprise guest – will raise funds for new talent in the region.

Sunday for Sammy stalwarts include Benidorm star Tim Healy and Lindisfarne drummer Ray Laidlaw, who produces the show.

Healy, who is chairman of the trust, says: “Sunday for Sammy has become one of the highlights of my professional life and I’m really looking forward to the next show, which will be our seventh.

“The 2010 gig was tremendous and we’re going to have to pull out all the stops to top it. As usual, we won’t be revealing any names before the show, but I can guarantee a brilliant cast and some great surprises. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Previous big names included Loose Women star Denise Welch, Brian Johnson of AC/DC and actors Kevin Whately, Jimmy Nail and Timothy Spall, who all co-starred with Healy in hit TV drama Auf Wiedersehen Pet. Last year’s mystery, big-name guest was Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler.

Unknown performers looking for their big break are currently auditioning for the trust in the hope of winning a grant to help with the cost of training.

Grants are awarded twice a year and, since the trust – formerly the Sammy Johnson Memorial Fund – was established, there have been more than 180 recipients and almost £500,000 has been raised to support talented North-East performers.

It was founded following the death in 1988 of Sammy – real name Ronnie – Johnson, an actor who had worked alongside many of today’s famous faces on dramas like Auf Wiedersehen Pet and Catherine Cookson’s The Gambling Man.

Ray Laidlaw says: “Sammy was a great bloke and he’d be thrilled that these concerts in his memory have become such a North-East institution. They are a logistical nightmare to organise but, without a doubt, my favourite gig of the year.”

Tickets are on sale from the Newcastle City Hall Box Office: 0191-261-2606 or newcastlecityhall.org/box-office. Tickets are £20, £25 and £30. A booking fee will be charged except for cash purchases in person.

Pantaloon tales

THE Pantaloons open-air theatre company are bringing an ambitious version of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales to Wearside and North Yorkshire. The company is performing all the 23 completed Canterbury Tales requiring a cast of six actors to play over 70 characters. The Pantaloons are not making it easy for themselves as every story will be performed in a different theatrical style. Audiences can expect pantomime, puppetry, masks, musicals, mime, farce, reality television, horror, opera – even Shakespeare gets a look in.

Complete with a medieval market beforehand, the audience can interact with the characters, buy their wares and even have a kiss from the Wife of Bath.

The play follows a group of pilgrims who decide to hold a story-telling contest on the road from Southwark to the shrine of St Thomas Beckett in Canterbury. The pilgrims are from all walks of medieval life and include a Knight, a Miller, a Monk, a Prioress, a Shipman and a rather insatiable Wife of Bath.

Mark Hayward, co-producer and co-author, explains: “It’s a tricky line to walk but as we were translating we realised that the key things were to keep it accessible and keep it funny.”

• Sat, July 16, 7pm, Nunnington Hall, Nunnington, North Yorkshire. 7pm.

Box Office: 01439 748 283 Thursday, July 21, Washington Old Hall. Tickets: £10/£7. 0191-416-6879.

Sat, Sept 3, Thorp Perrow, Bedale, North Yorkshire. 6.30pm.

Box Office: 01677-425-323
Online bookings: pantaloons.co.uk