Leigh Francis is to perform a live tour featuring his various characters, including Keith Lemon and Avid Merrion. My First Time will run across March and April 2024.

His promoters say: "Leigh's characters and sketches have kept millions of people around the UK laughing for years, and now he's stepping out as himself on an 18 date tour around the country.

"Joining Leigh will be his favourite characters, all brought to life in a live environment for the very first time ever. From Keith Lemon, Bear and Avid Merrion to 'David Dickinson', 'Ant and Dec' and Myrtle, this tour will be packed full of hilarious sketches with buckets of audience interaction."

Kicking off in Bath on Wednesday 6th March 2024, the tour will visit Guildford, Bournemouth, London, Cambridge, Sheffield, Halifax, Salford, York, Glasgow, Hull, Bradford, Buxton, Newcastle, Nottingham, Liverpool and Birmingham before closing in the star's hometown of Leeds on Saturday 6th April 2024.

The producers say: "From London's iconic Palladium to the Liverpool Philharmonic, Leigh and his characters are ready to assemble and give people a night to remember."

The comic says: "Hey, really exciting news! Well exciting for me! I hope it's exciting for you! Or at least provokes some sort of interest! I mean, just look how many exclamation marks there is in this quote! It's definitely news with exciting intent!

"So what is this exciting news? I'm doing my first ever tour! Never done one before. It's gonna have masks in it! The Bear, Avid Merrion, Amanda Holden's Gran, not her actual gran but me playing her. I'll also be playing Keith Lemon, I look just like him! It's me doing all the characters I do that hopefully have the intent to provoke hilarity! So many exclamation marks, and the word 'intent' and 'provoke' twice! I'm excited! Come see ME being other people LIVE for the first time! It'll be your first time and my first time! Hence the title of the tour My First Time! (There's another exclamation mark) how exciting!".

Tickets will be on sale this Friday from sites including Ticketmaster

2024 dates

WED 06 March: BATH, Forum
THU 07 March: GUILDFORD, G Live
FRI 08 March: BOURNEMOUTH, Pavilion Theatre
SAT 09 March: LONDON, Palladium
THU 14 March: CAMBRIDGE, Corn Exchange
FRI 15 March: SHEFFIELD, City Hall
SAT 16 March: HALIFAX, Victoria Theatre
SUN 17 March: SALFORD, The Lowry
WED 20 March: YORK, Barbican
THU 21 March: GLASGOW, Royal Concert Hall
FRI 22 March: HULL, City Hall
SAT 23 March: BRADFORD, St George's Hall
SUN 24 March: BUXTON, Opera House
THU 28 March: NEWCASTLE, Tyne Theatre
FRI 29 March: NOTTINGHAM, Royal Concert Hall
SAT 30 March: LIVERPOOL, Philharmonic
SUN 31 March: BIRMINGHAM, Symphony Hall
SAT 06 April: LEEDS, Grand Theatre & Opera House