Sat 24 May 2025 7:30pm

Brian Bilston, Henry Normal

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Brian Bilston and Henry Normal appear together for the first time in a show which one critic has described as 'two people reading some poems'.

Along the way, they will be drawing on their vast catalogue of crowd favourites - and throwing in new poems, to prevent becoming their own tribute bands.

Not ones to overpromise, Brian and Henry are prepared to commit to delivering the greatest poetry show in the history of the world: an evening of poems to be enjoyed, not endured.

Brian Bilston has been described as the Banksy of poetry and Twitter's unofficial Poet Laureate. With over 200,000 followers on social media, Brian has become truly beloved by the online community.

Henry Normal is a writer, poet, TV and film producer, founder of the Manchester Poetry Festival (now the Literature Festival) and co-founder of the Nottingham Poetry Festival.

Recommended age: 14+. Please note that this performance contains some swearing and light sexual references.

Duration: approx. 2 hours 20 mins (incl. interval)

Brian Bilston

Described as the ‘Poet Laureate of Twitter’ and ‘part John Cooper-Clarke, part Frank Sidebottom’, Brian Bilston is a poet clouded in the pipe smoke of mystery. Very little is known about him other than the fragments of information revealed on social media: his penchant for tank tops, his enjoyment of Vimto, his dislike of (and his poems about) Jeremy Clarkson.

See Brian Bilston tour dates

Henry Normal

Better known as co-writer of award winning TV and film shows such as The Royle Family, The Mrs Merton Show, The Parole Officer, Coogan's Run, Paul Calf and producer of amongst many others Oscar nominated Philomena, Gavin and Stacey, Moone Boy, Uncle and Alan Partridge, Henry returns to his first love: poetry. Staring Directly at the Eclipse is his first collection of poetry for over twenty years. It features poems from his acclaimed BBC Radio 4 program A Normal Family, together with new and selected poetry from his performance work.

See Henry Normal tour dates