HIGHLIGHTS rural touring scheme is under way with a new season of 25 shows heading to village halls across County Durham in the coming weeks.

Running almost up to Christmas, the scheme brings performances by some of the country’s best small-scale touring companies chosen by local village hall promoters for their own communities.

The mix of new work and favourites for autumn and winter includes a family comedy adventure, folk tales, clog dancing, poetry, Victorian parlour tricks and a festive themed comedy with sleuthful surprises.

Music ranges across folk, jazz, blues, world music and brass for Christmas. Drama highlights include She Called Me Mother at The Witham in Barnard Castle on November 18 with Bafta and Golden Globe nominated actress Cathy Tyson performing as Evangeline Gardner, a homeless, 70-year old Afro-Caribbean woman who finds herself living on the streets.

The play brings together Evangeline and her estranged daughter and is written in poetic Trinidadian vernacular rarely heard on British stages. Tickets cost £10; call 01833 631107.

The annual contemporary craft tour which used to tour each spring has now moved to the autumn. This year, the exhibition Rural Craft Re-Imagined… champions British craft and the contribution of heritage craft to contemporary design.

The work of six artists, covering basketry, woodturning, iron and leather work, textiles and letter carving, will be on show at St Thomas Church Hall in Stanhope from October 23-25 (10am-4pm), with a masterclass in leather work led by Mark Rowney on the final day, and at The Witham in Barnard Castle from November 12-22 (10am-4pm) with Pip Hall leading a masterclass in letter carving on November 14. Admission is free.

October dates continue with Rag Mama Rag, an evening of American roots music at Bowes and Gilmonby Parish Hall on the 15th; and instrumental guitar group 3 Boxes at Boldron and Frosterley on October 22 and 23 respectively.

November sees the Vancouver-based indie folk collective The Fugitives at St John’s School and 6th Form College in Bishop Auckland on the 4th; Under Her Skin, an ancient selkie folk tale, combining joyful irreverence, poetic imagery, killer riffs and clog dancing, performed by folk duo Debs Newbold and Laurel Swift at Bowes (November 19); and Dominic Berry's comedy adventure for families, When Trolls Try to Eat Your Goldfish, at Stanhope (November 26) and Crook (November 27).

December dates include The Baghdaddies, who play world music with a British knees-up sensibility, at Crook and Bowes; Morgan and West's Parlour Tricks magic show with storytelling, science and time travel at Bishop Auckland, Stanhope and Barningham; Brassy Christmas at Cotherstone and Stanhope, with Orichalcum performing seasonal favourites on brass instruments ranging from tiny piccolo trumpet to bass tuba; and He Wore a Red Hat, described as festive noir, at Hamsterley, when the audience will be invited to join in a spot of sleuthing.

The touring scheme operates across County Durham, Cumbria and Northumberland and is one of the largest of more than 30 such ventures in England and Wales. Each year it brings more than 150 subsidised performances from national touring companies into villages.

For full information, visit highlightsnorth.co.uk.