FOLK'S brightest new star, Jim Moray, will make his Pocklington Arts Centre debut this autumn.

Moray won the Horizon Award for best newcomer and the best album award for his 2003 release, Sweet England, in the 2004 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. He will be in Pocklington on September 21, in the wake of playing the Cambridge Folk Festival last weekend and supporting Richard Thompson at the Grand Opera House in York in May.

In all, 109 performers will participate in 29 events in the autumn season, which will start on September 16 with a concert by rock'n'roll veteran Marty Wilde.

In further musical highlights, The B'Eagles will return with their Eagles tribute on September 21 after last year's sell-out show; Irish singer-songwriter Eleanor McEvoy will promote her new album, Early Hours, on October 20; and Keith James will play highlights from his latest release, Outsides, on October 28.

Grammy nominated Darrell Scott and Danny Thompson will team up on November 5, and The Long Ryders' Sid Griffin will lead bluegrass band The Coal Porters in a night of mandolin, banjo, fiddle, double bass and guitar, topped off by a rendition of The Who's My Generation, on November 15.

Glenn Tilbrook and The Fluffers will tuck into the Squeeze front man's back catalogue on November 25. The Dylan Project brings together folk rock musicians Simon Nicol and Dave Pegg, from Fairport Convention, guitarist P J Wright and singer Steve Gibbons, who will cherry-pick from Bob Dylan's songbook on December 10.

After the success of film critic Barry Norman's talk at the arts centre in February 2003, crooner, broadcaster and political inquisitor Sir Jimmy Young will discuss his career with Duncan Wood on September 18.

The theatre programme will be led off by De Musset & Co's reflection of the dramatic life of Oscar Wilde on September 10; Ring Pull Theatre Company will dive into the political intrigue of Hamlet on October 1 and 2; Reform Theatre Company from Sheffield will recall the days of the Carry On movies in Kissing Sid James on October 3; Lantern Theatre Company pay an affectionate tribute to Gilbert & Sullivan (...Pruned) on November 13; and Motion Loco will serve up Syd And Fanny's Christmas Turkey on December 15.

For children, there will be a couple of shows: Magic Carpet Theatre Company's Magic Circus on October 28 and Martha The Cat's Magical Christmas on December 18.

In the Studio, the monthly Mirth Control Comedy Club will feature Perrier Award nominees Hal Cruttenden, on September 23 and Natalie Haynes on October 21. Dougie Dunlop will visit on November 18 and Sol Bernstein, the comic creation of Steve Jameson, will headline on December 16.

The Studio Sessions will place the emphasis on the local music scene with sets by Manifesto and Superfly on September 2 and The Amber Souls and Ostracized, from Pocklington, on November 4. Singer-songwriters and bands interested in performing should phone 01759 304819.

These activities will be complemented by a monthly art exhibition, starting on September 4 with the Ebor Textile Group showcase. From October 5, Judy Burnett will present a mixed-media exhibition of landscapes that contrast the glowing colours of the Mediterranean with the long shadows of an autumnal Yorkshire.

Watercolours and pen and ink drawings of Yorkshire villages by Pocklington artist Shirley Davis will be on show from November 2; the Yo Ceramics! Collective of Jill Ford, Penny Phillips and Barbara Wood will exhibit contemporary ceramics from November 30 to December 14. All exhibitions are free and open to view during normal opening hours and before performances, and most items are for sale.

Tickets and newly printed autumn brochures are available from the box office on 01759 301547. Alternatively, call in during opening hours or visit www.pocklingtonartscentre.co.uk

Updated: 16:16 Thursday, August 05, 2004