HELMSLEY Arts Centre springs into the new season with plenty of variety for all.

A host of films, concerts, talks, shows and live screenings start on Friday, with Mike Leigh’s much-feted Mr Turner, while on Wednesday, January 21, Jan Maggie Smith, Kristen Scott Thomas and Kevin Kline star in My Old Lady.

The highly-praised film about Bletchley Park, The Imitation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, is screening on Sunday, February 1, for a second time.

Musically, the programme spans all genres, with highlights, including leading saxman Snake Davis, who makes a welcome return with his band on Saturday, February 7, while on Sunday, February 22, the world-class young classical pianist Ji Liu plays a recital, featuring works by Schubert, Beethoven, Gershwin and Liszt.

This artist has appeared at major international venues, and his 2014 debut CD, released by Classic FM, reached number one in the classical charts.

On Saturday, March 14 the Budapest Café Orchestra brings traditional folk and gypsy music from across the Balkans and Russia, also Klezmer, Romanian Doinas, Hungarian Czadas and beautiful ballads too.

There is more music in April from award-winning folk act Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker on Saturday, April 18; An Evening with Anita Harris on Thursday, April 23 and young classical harpist Alice French on Sunday, April 26.

Helmsley audiences will not be disappointed by TV presenter, honorary member of the Royal Institute of British Architects and author of many respected books on architecture, Dan Cruickshank, whose talk, What’s Wrong with Modern Architecture? on February 21 explores what we like about old places and buildings and asks why we can’t achieve comparable quality and popular appeal now.

The arts centre holds its first Readers Sunday on March 15, which offers a chance to get to know three entertaining writers in the company of fellow book lovers. Natalie Haynes was a leading stand-up comedian before reverting to her first love, the classics. Stephen May is a bitingly comic novelist. And crime novelist Helen Cadbury’s first book, To Catch A Rabbit, is set in York.

Enjoy presentations by all three writers, stay for lunch and join in-conversation sessions looking at all aspects of writing.

Comedy audiences should book early for the award-winning comedian Jo Caulfield, whose new show, Uninformed Opinions is on Friday, April 24.

Theatre audiences also have a great selection of shows with the resident 1812 Theatre Company’s production of Noel Coward’s Private Lives on Thursday, February 26 to Sunday, March 1.

Townsend Productions bring their new touring show, United We Stand on Saturday, March 7, which tells the story of the turbulent Builders’ Strike of 1972, staged in theatrical and entertaining style.

Irish actor Aidan Dooley stars in a multi-award-winning, dramatic and humorous one-man show Tom Crean: Antarctic Explorer on Friday, March 13, a riveting true story of one of the few men to serve with both Scott and Shackleton.

Actress/singers The Three Belles bring their exceptional vocal harmonies to an infectiously entertaining 1940s night on Friday, March 27, while the superb Dyad Productions’ play The Unremarkable Death of Marilyn Monroe on Friday, April 17, reveals the woman behind the icon as her remarkable life unravels.

Live Screenings from the National Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Bolshoi Ballet and Manchester Royal Exchange are also on the programme, including Treasure Island, the Bolshoi Ballet’s live Swan Lake, RSC’s Love’s Labour’s Lost and the NTLive’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers, while Maxine Peake is also appearing as Hamlet, on Monday, March 23.

For more information, go to helmsleyarts.co.uk or phone the box office on 01439 771700.