For more than twenty years, Slapstick Festival has celebrated the founding figures of screen comedy, from Chaplin and Keaton to Lloyd. Laurel and Hardy have always been part of that story, yet this is only the second time they have been placed at the very centre of the festival’s identity and programming.
In some ways, that feels entirely appropriate. Their contribution has often been quieter, subtler and perhaps underappreciated. They are less visibly daring than Keaton, less grandly ambitious than Chaplin and less acrobatic than Lloyd. Their comedy appears gentle, natural and unforced, though anyone who looks closely can see the extraordinary precision behind it.
In a culture now dominated by verbal humour, it is easy to overlook just how intelligent their work truly is. The newly restored silent films from 1928, central to this year’s programme, reveal that intelligence in its purest form. Without dialogue, everything depends on timing, rhythm, expression and invention. Even in these early films, the familiar emotional architecture of the partnership is already present. Ollie’s wounded dignity sits alongside Stan’s hopeful attempts to fix the unfixable. The relationship feels instinctive, as if it had always existed, waiting to be discovered.
At the other end of their careers lies their final screen appearance in Atoll K, often discussed with hesitation because of its troubled production and limited success. Yet seen in context, it becomes deeply moving. By the early 1950s, both Stan and Ollie were unwell and the landscape of film comedy had shifted. Even so, they persisted. Whatever its flaws, the film shows the two performers clinging to the thing they understood and did best. Through ill health, endless production difficulties and rewrites, they continued, sustained by their craft, partnership and courage.
This year’s festival celebrates not only their work, but their legacy as seen through the eyes of contemporary performers who continue to draw inspiration from Stan and Ollie.
A special Slapstick conversation event, Rediscovering Laurel & Hardy, brings together Sanjeev Bhaskar and Adam Hills to explore what the duo mean to modern comedy. Their conversation reveals how deeply Stan and Ollie remain embedded in the imagination of today’s comedians.
That influence is echoed across the festival. Harry Hill, one of the great contemporary masters of visual and absurdist comedy, joins Slapstick to select the Laurel and Hardy films he would take with him if stranded on a desert island. Allowed only two shorts and one feature, his chosen feature will remain a secret until the lights go down.
Together, these voices, from Bhaskar and Hills to Hill and others, demonstrate that Laurel and Hardy are not relics of a vanished era, but living presences in modern comic culture.
Perhaps the power of their legacy is felt most strongly in the shared experience of watching them with an audience. At this year’s Silent Comedy Gala, Slapstick will present their classic 1928 film Leave ’Em Laughing, accompanied by live music and screened before a packed auditorium. For almost twenty minutes, the pair laugh continuously on screen, though we never hear a sound. Instead, the laughter is supplied by the audience. It spreads outward from the screen, becoming collective, contagious and communal.
Silent comedy, when it truly connects, still has the power to unite strangers in an immediate and miraculous way.
That sense of shared joy feels especially important now. Many people in the United Kingdom are living with financial pressure, uncertainty and fatigue that make everyday life feel heavier. Laughter can seem harder to reach. Yet it remains one of the simplest and most reliable forms of relief. It lowers stress, strengthens resilience and creates moments of connection. Laurel and Hardy understood the struggles of ordinary life better than most. Their films are built from small hopes, small disasters and the comfort of facing them together.
That is why they stand at the heart of this year’s Slapstick Festival. Their comedy may appear simple, but it is built on deep understanding. It is warm without sentimentality, gentle without losing purpose, and precise without ever feeling mechanical. What looks effortless is the product of extraordinary intuition and discipline. The festival also includes Laurel and Hardy’s Yorkshire Adventures, a film that celebrates the extraordinary commitment of fans and the Sons of the Desert. It reminds us that Laurel and Hardy did not simply survive their era, but were lovingly carried forward by audiences who refused to let them fade.
We rightly celebrate Keaton and Chaplin for their onscreen genius.
Stan and Ollie deserve the same recognition. In darkened rooms, onglowing screens, they continue to perform their quiet miracles. They remind us, softly and persistently, that joy is not trivial. It is an act of resilience.
And that’s why Laurel and Hardy still matter.
Chris Daniels
Ed. Norman Taylor, David Robinson