Arts Diary: Will Marriott

Heaton is to begin the journey next month with a quick half in the Rovers Return and is encouraging fans to get on their bikes.

"I'm looking forward to pedalling around the country to promote cycling and the British pub. Both are very close to my heart. I've been cycling all my life and the British pub has provided most of my favourite stop-off points. It saddens me to hear about so many pubs closing on a weekly basis so I want to do all I can to get people back to their local."

Heaton will be playing tracks from his new solo record as well as the occasional song from his extensive back catalogue, and he will be at the Rockingham Arms in Rotherham on May 19, followed by The White Horse in Hutton Cranswick on May 20 and the Original Oak in Leeds on May 21.

And one of Heaton's former bandmates also has a new venture. Stan Cullimore, who played guitar in the House Martins, is behind a musical TV series for pre-school children. The Bopps has been likened to a modern-day version of The Banana Splits and Cullimore says: "This is us, as parents, having a ball and trying to make our kids laugh.

"All of us involved in the programme have ben working in children's TV for more than 10 years. The band has evolved from long-standing friendships and a shared passion for the same genre of music. Suddenly we found ourselves with enough songs for an album and the idea for the series grew from there."

Cannes has one, so does Edinburgh and next month Hebden Bridge will get its very own film festival.

Ninety Years of Hebden Royd at the Movies, the brainchild of local filmmaker Nick Wilding and the Picture House Cinema, will be dedicated to films shot in the area.

The programme will include screenings of Fanny and Elvis and My Summer of Love, and on the opening night Nick will take the audience on a trip down memory lane showing extracts and trailers from various locally-shot films, and talking to people who took part, watched or simply got in the way of filming.

It's hoped the climax of the festival will be the return to Britain of the lost film Helen of Four Gates, not seen in this country for 90 years. If this coup comes off, Hebden Bridge will be the first place in Britain to screen the silent classic picture since its original release in 1920.

"It's right that Hebden should be the venue for the first screening as the film was written by a local author and was shot in the hills and valleys around Hebden Bridge," said Nick.

"Cecil Hepworth, who produced the film, was a pioneer of cinema and it is a rare example of one of his many full-length features, nearly all of which were, sadly, burnt or destroyed."

The festival is part of the HB500 event celebrating the 500th anniversary of the town's stone bridge, and full listings can be found at www.hebden500.co.uk