Comedy fans are in for a treat in Hitchin with two shows planned for successive Thursdays this month.

Mostly Comedy's rescheduled November date with The Fast Show's Simon Day and Red Dwarf star Norman Lovett will now take place at Hitchin Town Hall next Thursday on December 9.

A week later, on December 16, Doggett and Ephgrave's Hitchin Mostly Comedy club will host two masters of improv – Tony Slattery and Phil Kay.

Both comedians will perform sets and then be interviewed for the club’s More Than Mostly Comedy podcast.

The Perrier Award-winning Tony Slattery has appeared on British television regularly since the 1980s, most notably on Channel Four's hit improvisational show Whose Line is it Anyway?, and in films including the Academy Award and BAFTA-winning The Crying Game, and How to Get Ahead in Advertising.

He began his performing career at the University of Cambridge, discovering a love of theatre alongside contemporaries including Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson and Sandi Toksvig.

Encouraged to join the Cambridge Footlights by Fry, Tony won the Fringe First Edinburgh award in 1979 while still at college. Then in 1981, Slattery, Fry, Laurie, Thompson and Toksvig won the inaugural Perrier Comedy Award for their revue, The Cellar Tapes.

Tony joined Whose Line is it Anyway? as a regular guest in 1989. The show ran for years, making him a household name.

His other TV credits include Have I Got News For You, Red Dwarf, Bad Girls, Ready Steady Cook, Grumpy Old Men, The Weakest Link, Kingdom and Coronation Street and film credits include To Die For, Peter’s Friends and Carry On Columbus.

Scottish comic Phil Kay joins Tony on the bill.

As seen on QI and Russell Howard’s Good News, Phil first burst onto the comedy circuit in 1989, winning the Edinburgh Fringe Festival competition So You Think You're Funny in its second year.

His unpredictable, freestyle approach to live performance led to a Perrier Award nomination in 1993, as well as winning Best Stand-up at the British Comedy Awards in 1994.

He went on to make two series for Channel 4, Phil Kay Feels… and Next Stop Phil Kay.

The gig will be emceed by Doggett & Ephgrave, who will also interview both acts in the second half for forthcoming episodes of the podcast More Than Mostly Comedy.

Audience members can submit questions in advance via the Mostly Comedy website or by using the hashtag #MTMCpodcast, both before and on the night.

The doors and bar open at 7.15pm, with the show at the Brand Street venue starting at 8pm.

Tickets are £15 and are available at www.mostlycomedy.co.uk.

Seating will be socially distanced with mask-wearing encouraged, with the show sold to a maximum of 50 per cent capacity to mitigate COVID-19 transmissibility.