UK ventriloquist Paul Zerdin is the headline act at this year’s Devizes Comedy show, to the delight of organiser Emma Cann, who has been trying to book him since the festival began five years ago.

“Paul Zerdin is a world class ventriloquist who has been in our sights since we began and so we are thrilled to have finally been able to book him, he is brilliant. Once I knew we had Paul we could build up the acts around him,” she said.

Paul has performed at the Royal Variety Performance, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and has been on UK tours. His characters include the cheeky pre-adolescent Sam and belligerent OAP Albert.

Supporting Paul will be Romesh Ranganathan, a rising star on the comedy circuit and who has appeared on Live at the Apollo, Mock The Week and Russell Howard’s Good News. He has also appeared at the Moonrakers Comedy Club in Devizes and was nominated for the best newcomer award at the Edinburgh Festival in 2013. The warm up act will be Rob Deering, a guitar-wielding comedian.

Mrs Cann runs the annual comedy show with her husband, Mark. The show is again sponsored by Strakers.

He also runs the British Forces Foundation charity based in Pewsey and a lot of the artists who appear at the comedy show do work for the foundation.

Last year’s show was a sell out and this year about 100 have already gone out of 360.

Mrs Cann said: “We have got quite a good and loyal following. It’s all about the acts. We put on a good night out and it’s really good value.”