SOME of Glasgow’s best known landmarks have been lit up with projections to mark the return of what is billed as Europe’s largest comedy festival.

The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall and the Riverside Museum are among the prominent buildings that have been given a cinematic makeover with visual teasers for the Whyte & Mackay Glasgow International Comedy Festival ahead of its launch today.

It will run until March 25 with 500 shows at 54 venues across the city.

It features household names like Ed Byrne, Limmy, Katherine Ryan, David Baddiel, Jerry Sadowitz, Alexei Sayle, Rob Delaney, Shappi Khorsandi, and Elaine C Smith. Ryan, a familiar TV face with regular appearances on panel shows such as Mock the Week and 8 out of 10 Cats, kicks things off tonight with her Glitter Room show at the Pavilion Theatre.

The King’s Theatre will host the first two recordings of The Comedians, a new stand-up show where all the 24 acts are over 50, including Fred MacAulay, John Moloney, Gary Little and Janey Godley.

As well as stand-up performances in some of the city’s biggest venues and intimate gigs in pubs, the festival features plays, sketches, improv, film and comedy for kids. There will be magicians, rappers and interactive comedy games, and shows inspired by everything from zombies to rescue dogs, Elvis to Star Trek.

Other unusual shows include the Comedy Crawl which takes the audience to see four comedians in four West End bars and Round The Clock Comedy Roadshow which takes place over 12 hours with a different performance each hour.