A huge "comedy carpet" is being unveiled on Blackpool seafront by funnyman Ken Dodd. The concrete and granite installation immortalises catchphrases and jokes by more than 1,000 comedians and writers.
The Blackpool Comedy Carpet has been designed by artist Gordon Young and inspired by the style of classic theatre playbills. Young is known for public commissions including work at GCHQ in Cheltenham, Bankside in London and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
Lines uttered by comedians including Morecambe and Wise, Tony Hancock, Peter Kay, Matt Lucas, John Cleese, Kenneth Williams, Spike Milligan and Les Dawson have been included.
The carpet was constructed in a former fish factory in Hull and features 160,000 individually cut letters, ranging in size from a few centimetres to almost a metre tall.
The 1,880 square metre (20,000 square foot) work is said by the town's tourist agency to be one of the largest pieces of public art ever commissioned in the UK and is designed to be the resort's answer to the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
