The traveller's guide to comedy England

Can I go on a comedy holiday?

You're spoilt for choice, with comedy festivals populating every corner of England from Brighton to Newcastle and Morecambe to Newbury, each one offering the chance to see a gig in the evening and go out exploring during the day

The Leicester Comedy Festival (0116 261 6812; www.comedy-festival.co.uk), which runs from 6-15 February 2009, is one of the most established festivals in the UK and has seen the likes of Jo Brand, Jack Dee, Dave Gorman, Rory Bremner, Bill Bailey, Ross Noble, Johnny Vegas, Harry Hill and Alan Carr play at various venues within the East Midlands city. Previously only on the comedy map as the birthplace of Python Graham Chapman, one of Leicester's most intriguing draws was American comedy legend Roseanne Bar in 2006.

Newbury Comedy Festival (01635 522733, www.newburycomedyfestival.com), next held 5-12 July 2009, scored a similar coup when when it lured the master of US creep-out comedy Emo Philips to the Hampshire market town, also in 2006.

Other festival cities include Liverpool (www.liverpoolcomedyfestival.co.uk), which runs from 28 May to 7 June 2009, Manchester (0844 847 1536, www.manchestercomedyfestival.co.uk), which runs from 16-26 October 2008, and Newcastle-Gateshead (07905 551 641; www.newcastlegatesheadcomedyfestival.com), which runs from 2-8 March 2009.

London's festival scene is newly resurgent thanks to the Pimms Summerfest (www.pimmssummerfest.com), a five-day long event in Holland Park that took place in late August this year, and The Big Joke (0844 847 2475; www.leicestersquaretheatre.com) which runs until 22 October and has featured Joan Rivers, among others, in the past.

Seaside favourite Brighton offers two bites at the comedy cherry with the Brighton Fringe Festival (01273 709709; www.brightonfestivalfringe.org.uk), held in May, and The Brighton Comedy Festival, sponsored by The Paramount Comedy Channel (01273 709709; www.paramountcomedyfestival.com) which starts today and runs until 25 October. The former includes the best of what is going to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the latter the best of what's coming back. The big draws at the Brighton Comedy Festival this October will include Michael McIntyre, Frankie Boyle, Dylan Moran, Ed Byrne, Dara O'Briain and Shappi Khorsandi, as well as a clutch of "if.comedy" award nominees and winners of the last few years.

Would a short city break be a giggle?

If you're worried you'll suffer from chronic jaw ache by putting yourself through weeks of comedy festival hysteria, then a comedy city break might be the better option. A long weekend will give you a chance to visit a top-notch comedy club. The Comedy Store (0844 847 1728; www.thecomedystore.co.uk) in London still provides some of the best-quality comedy bills in the capital; its central location makes it easy to take in a show, wherever you might be staying in town. A recent residency is Andrew Maxwell's Fullmooners, which has attracted stand-up stints from Matt Lucas and Simon Pegg among others.

Beyond the capital, one of the first clubs to be a success was the Birmingham Glee Club (0871 472 0400; www.glee.co.uk). There's also Just The Tonic in Nottingham (0115 910 0009; www.justthetonic.com), where Ricky Gervais honed his stand up; The Hyena Café, Newcastle (0191 232 6030; www.thehyena.com); Rawhide Comedy Club, Liverpool (0870 787 1866; www.royalcourtliverpool.co.uk/rawhide) and The Komedia, Brighton (01273 647100; www.komedia.co.uk).

Manchester has the biggest scene outside London, with a number of good clubs dotted around the city: try XS Malarkey (0161 257 2403; www.xsmalarkey.com), The Frog & Bucket (0161 236 9805; www.frogandbucket.com), Comedy Store Manchester (0844 826 0001; www.the comedystore.co.uk) and The Buzz Club (01482 806001; www.buzzcomedy.co.uk).

Can I visit where the laughter happened?

Backdrops to film and TV comedy often spring up conveniently in places of aesthetic interest, such as Wells in Somerset which was used for the Simon Pegg movie Hot Fuzz (albeit with the cathedral digitally removed). If you took this corner of England as a starting point then two roads diverge for the comedy holidaymaker. A diehard devotee of Simon Pegg would inevitably gravitate back towards the capital to Highgate and Hornsey, where much of Shaun of the Dead was filmed (Shaun's house was on Nelson Road in Hornsey) and Tufnell Park, where his sitcom Spaced was filmed; a good website for exact locations is www.movielocationsguide.com.

Otherwise, stay in Somerset and visit the Cricket St Thomas estate in Chard where the sitcom To The Manor Born, starring Penelope Keith and Peter Bowles, was filmed back in the late seventies and early Eighties. Warner Leisure Breaks (0800 138 2633; www.warnerleisureoffers.co.uk) offers a two-night stay as Lord and Lady of the Manor from £176 per person including breakfast.

Another iconic comedy location is Freshwater Beach in Dorset, where the opening titles of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin were filmed. The titles featured Leonard Rossiter's character undressing and walking into the water, the symbol of his mid-life crisis and ultimate re-birth.

Perrin's "Sunshine Desserts" office is back in London: a record company storage depot on Telford Way in Acton. His house was just down the road in Sandall Close, Ealing.

By way of contrast, perhaps the ultimate combination of luxury and comedy are the locations used in Four Weddings and a Funeral, including the former Elizabethan coaching inn, the Crown Hotel in Amersham (01494 721 541; www.dhillonhotels.co.uk) which was the scene of Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell's characters' first tryst.

Finally, Steve Coogan's series I'm Alan Partridge was filmed in Norwich. Locations such as the railway station, the cathedral and the River Bure at Wroxham were used during filming.

Are there any monuments to comedy?

England's comedy heritage may be rich, yet it's not always accessible. But Birmingham has taken a leaf out of Hollywood's book by recreating a "walk of fame" as the Birmingham Walk of Stars (www.walkofstars.co.uk) through the city's busy Broad Street area, honouring local talent including Jasper Carrott, Lenny Henry and Frank Skinner.

In London blue plaques (www.english-heritage.org.uk) offer an obvious way to negotiate the formative sites for comedy favourites. Tony Hancock's former home in Golders Green is marked by a blue plaque (at the behest of the Dead Comics Society), while further south there is a blue plaque at Mornington Crescent station in honour of Willie Rushton, founder member of Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue. The site of the plaque is a reference to the game that was played on the radio programme. In hip Exmouth Market, Clerkenwell, lies the house belonging to England's most famous clown, Joseph Grimaldi. Similarly commemorated by a blue plaque is Oscar Wilde's house in Tite Street, Chelsea.

Grander monuments are to be found in the provinces: a statue of Max Miller in Brighton, one of Tony Hancock in Birmingham, in Hartlepool there's a statue to cartoon character of Andy Capp, and on the seafront in Morecambe Bay stands a monument to Eric Morecambe.

More sustained reminiscence can be found in Ulverston, Cumbria, the birthplace of Arthur Stanley Jefferson, better known as Stan Laurel and site of The Laurel & Hardy Museum (01229 582292; www.laurel-and-hardy.co.uk). Home to one of the largest collections of memorabilia of the comedy duo, it features personal items such as letters, photos and furniture as well as a small cinema showing films and documentaries throughout the day. Open daily from February to December, 10am-4.30pm, last entry at 4pm. Admission £3 for adults. (Check the website for details as an imminent location change is planned for the museum.)

For another nostalgic immersion into comedy history, try the The Dad's Army Experience (01379 686900; www.bressingham.co.uk) at Bressingham Steam Museum Trust and Gardens, near Diss in Norfolk. A host of memorabilia is housed here, and there is also a reconstruction of Walmington-on-Sea High Street. Many scenes from the series were filmed in nearby Thetford, including Thetford Guildhall (which doubled as Walmington-on-Sea Town Hall), the Palace Cinema and the Stanford Battle Area. Open 11am-4pm daily until 19 March, then 10.30am-5pm; £12.

Can I go somewhere and be funny?

Yes, in theory. There's some debate as to whether following a comedy course can make you funny but if you chose to go down that road there's now a selection of comedy courses available, both academic and practical. The universities of Kent and Southampton Solent both offer academic courses, but for a more leisurely approach (often involving the swapping of comedy notes in one of the many hostelries that these courses usually take place in) try a practical course run by your local comedy club.

In London one of the most widely-known is the course run by the Amused Moose group in London (www.amusedmoose.com). Not all participants go the distance and start doing amateur "open spots" after their course, but some do.

Who knows? Perhaps one day there will be some former "Comedy England" holidaymakers who find themselves retracing their steps as an attraction, rather than a tourist.

For more comedy-related locations, visit www.enjoyengland.com/comedy

Compare Travel Insurance - 5 day Euro cover from £4.33 and Annual worldwide policies from just £43.08