Laurel and Hardy Centenary Tour comes to Wareham on Sunday 1st February
Presented By Neil Brand
UK Tour Feb 1st – 16th May 2026
Supported by Yamaha Music
*Premier at the London BFI on Sunday 11th January 2026 at 3pm*
“I’ve stolen from Laurel & Hardy all my career”
LAUREL & HARDY – arguably the most important and influential comedy partnership of all time – will be celebrated in 2026 with a new 100th anniversary touring show, presented by TV personality, musician and world authority on silent films, Neil Brand.
The Laurel & Hardy Centenary Tour will visit over fifty towns and cities across the UK. Audiences will be taken back in time to the era of the silent film, where the music was played live and often improvised alongside the moving picture.
About the tour...
- WORLD EXPERT ON SILENT FILMS NEIL BRAND TOURS THE UK AND BRINGS BACK TO LIFE THE HILARIOUS ANTICS OF LAUREL & HARDY
- LIVE IMPROVISED MUSIC
- 100-YEAR-OLD CLIPS RESTORED AND UNVEILED
- AUDIENCE INVOLVEMENT + Q&A
Restored films
Two newly restored films, ‘The Finishing Touch’ and ‘You’re Darn Tootin’ will be screened, the latter featuring Neil Brand performing his own acclaimed soundtrack to the film, and audience participation in the sound effects!
Freshly restored clips from a further eleven classic Laurel & Hardy films will be shown, with a level of clarity never-before-seen.
A unique evening of fun, music and insight
Audiences will be treated to a unique evening of fun, music and insight as Neil reveals the techniques of silent film and how the comedy of Laurel & Hardy is heightened with piano accompaniment. Each show will finish with an audience Q&A.
Neil Brand said:
“Every show on this tour will be different because – just as one hundred years ago – the music will be improvised. I am going to take audiences back in time: we’ll run the films and I will improvise dramatic music at the piano. The Laurel & Hardy Centenary Tour is designed to give people a great night of entertainment, a little history and a chance to witness, in remarkable new clarity, the starting point of a partnership that revolutionised global entertainment.”
About Neil Brand
Neil Brand is a world authority on silent films and the music behind them.
After featuring with Paul Merton in Paul’s acclaimed BBC4 Series ‘Silent Clowns’, Neil presented his own BBC4 series ‘Sound of Cinema’ (2013), ‘Sound of Song’ (2015), ‘Sound of Musicals’ (2017), ‘Sound of Movie Musicals’ (2018) and ‘Sound of TV’ (2020).
Brand is a visiting lecturer and Member of the Royal Academy of Music and has composed soundtracks to over one hundred original radio dramas, documentaries and feature series for the BBC and Channel 4.
He has composed the orchestral scores for the classic silent movies of Hitchcock, Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks & Jackie Coogan and the adaptation of the classic novels for symphony orchestra and choir Dickens’s “Christmas Carol”, “The Wind in the Willows” and “The Hound of the Baskervilles”.
Neil currently hosts the fastest growing music podcast All About The Music Podcast where celebrities discuss their favourite songs, artists and how music impacts their lives.
The Laurel and Hardy Centenary Tour with Neil Brand will be appearing at The Rex Cinema in Wareham on Sunday 1st February 2026. Tickets are selling fast. Book yours now from the Rex Cinema Website.
