If you haven’t already sorted out your festive entertainment this year, there is a hidden gem lurking in the wings courtesy of Liverpool’s PurpleCoat Productions. They’re staging the hilarious farce Noises Off in January, and it’s all double-takes and slamming doors and promises to be packed full with belly laughs.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous!” laughs the show’s director, Karl Falconer. ‘It’s about a group of awful actors trying to stage an old-school sex farce, except that they all hate one another, and the set keeps falling to bits, so it’s really a farce about a bunch of people failing miserably to put on a farce!’