THE third part of a comedy trilogy by campaigning comic Mark Thomas will enjoy two Hampshire dates this autumn.

Having kept himself busy Trespassing all over in his last show, Mark has somehow found the time to travel back and forth to his university town of Wakefield and to the place where it all began; the Red Shed, a labour club there, home to Mark’s first public performances as well as the beginnings of his political awakening.

He will bring brand new show The Red Shed to Winchester’s Theatre Royal on October 11 and Nuffield in Southampton on October 22.

Interviewing old friends and comrades, Mark pieces together the club’s history and works alongside it to campaign with some of the poorest workers in the country. It is the story of the battle for hope and the survival of a community. It is a tale of strikes, fights, dinner ladies, crap beer, good beer, burger slingers, pickets, placards, commies, friendship, love, history, dreams and, above all, remembering.

The trilogy began with the multi award winning, critically acclaimed Bravo Figaro and Cuckooed, and concludes in yet another nationwide tour, which also celebrates the Red Shed's 50th birthday.

With every one of his previous solo shows selling out their Edinburgh runs, snapping up awards and nominations and becoming Radio 4 series, the Fringe would not be the same without his explorations so Mark Thomas will once again be in Edinburgh this August.

He’s stopped arms deals, created a manifesto and brought the winning policy to parliament, walked the entire length of the Israeli wall in the West Bank, filmed his own Channel 4 series, written books, won more awards, held Guinness World Records, investigated everything from Coca-Cola to inheritance tax avoidance, given evidence to Parliamentary Select Committees, stopped multinational infrastructure deals, been arrested on numerous occasions and founded a new definition for the word ‘Farage’.

Tickets: 01962 840440 (Winchester) or 023 8067 1771 (Southampton).