TWO sell-out acts by TV regulars will get this year's Devizes Arts Festival off to a flying start.

So many people wanted to see TV historian Lucy Worsley tonight (Thursday) that organisers swapped her performance from the Town Hall to the Corn Exchange to allow more tickets to be sold but these quickly ran out.

Ms Worsley, who is a BBC presenter as well as chief curator at the charity Historic Royal Palaces, will take the audience on a tour through the dark story of people's fascination with murder

Comedian Rob Beckett, who appears in the Corn Exchange tomorrow (Friday) evening, had tickets for his show were snapped up by fans of the comic known as the Mouth Of The South back in December when they were on pre-release as part of his national tour.

His TV appearances on cult shows such as Mock the Week, 8 out of 10 Cats does Countdown and Fresh Meat meant he had a huge following and arts festival organisers were delighted to attract him to Devizes.

But tickets remain on sale for most other acts including an appearance of Paul Jones as part of The Blue Band on June 18 in the Corn Exchange. He along with Tom McGuinness, Dave Kelly, Gary Fletcher and Rob Townsend will be celebrating 36 years on the music scene during which time they have made 20 albums.

One of the festival organisers said: "Expect a fusion of original compositions and some of the great classics delivered with passion, skill and entertaining showmanship from this amazing band.

"These boys have real feel – for their music, for their audience and for each other. Playing with maturity and passion is second nature to all of them."

Another classic music act not be missed is Ireland's Cara Dillon who was winner of Radio 2's folk award.

Poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy will appear with John Sampson at St John the Baptist Church on Saturday. She will read from her acclaimed collections including The World’s Wife and The Bees.

There are also a number of free fringe events to entertain people in small venues throughout the town. These include The Twins Macabre at The Lamb on June 8 and Attila The Stockbroker in The Vaults on June 16.

To find out full details of acts, venues, ticket prices and times go to www.devizesartsfestival.org.uk