DILLIE Keane is once again taking a break from her Fascinating Aida gal pals, to bring audiences around the country her solo show.

This includes the Theatre Royal, Winchester on Friday March 24 and Lighthouse, Poole on Wednesday April 12.

Written by her and Adèle Anderson, which she debuted at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2015, Dillie will be accompanied on the piano by Michael Roulston.

With brand new tunes, grand old favourites, gorgeous songs of love and hilarious songs of utter wickedness, Dillie will break your heart, mend it again and have it sent to the cleaners for pressing. And she'll give you her recipe for chutney while she’s at it!

As founding member of Fascinating Aida, Dillie has amassed over 17 million hits on Youtube for their charming and now infamous takes on a variety of topics from Cheap Flights to OFSTED to Dillie’s notorious ode to dogging, which itself has reached 2 million hits so far.

Dillie said: “Honestly, you’d think at my age I’d be settling down to knit cardies for my grandchildren and planting out my dahlias. Well, I haven’t got any grandchildren and my dahlias only need occasional attention. And I’m still getting through the 2015 chutney glut, so no more is required for the time being. So what else should I do other than pack my suitcase and set off around the country with my show? Britain in spring and the open road? There is no greater pleasure.

"Since I put the show together as a little diversion to while away what was meant to be a short break from Fascinating Aïda, the show has grown and changed - rather like a fine wine maturing in an oak barrel. Or perhaps like a cheese, ripening and stinking the house out. My great friend Michael Fitzgerald directed it for the Pheasantry last year, and then another very old pal, Simon Green, lent his directorial eye to the show before I took it to New York, to the very theatre he’s played many times. Michael put it together and shaped it, rather like Yotam Ottolenghi assembling the ingredients for an inspirational salad, and then Simon pruned it and tied it to a trellis, rather like a lovely espalier peach tree in a well-ordered potager. I then perform it for the audience like an old gardener who has contracted viral pneumonia but still goes out with her secateurs in the rain.

"I’m travelling once again with Michael Roulston who will be lending his brilliant piano playing to my songs. We had a lovely time together on the last tour, and survived a month in New York together, which has given us time to be good friends as well as good musical colleagues. Michael is much in demand on the cabaret circuit in London so I have to ply him with many gins after the show in case he is tempted elsewhere. And since he hates drinking by himself, I have to join him, it’s terrible what I suffer for my art.”

Having studied music at Trinity College, Dublin and acting at LAMDA, Keane founded Fascinating Aida in 1983, discovering her now long term writing partner Adèle Anderson who joined in 1984. With the trio she has enjoyed 30 years of success, playing countless tours around the UK and Ireland, featuring stints in London theatres including the Donmar Warehouse, Theatre Royal, Haymarket, the Apollo and the Garrick. Further afield they have performed at theatres in New Zealand, New York, South Africa as well as one month at the Sydney Opera House. Away from Fascinating Aida, Keane has presented a number of one woman shows both in the West End and at the Edinburgh Festival as well as developing her acting career in plays such as The Plough and the Stars (West Yorkshire Playhouse); Juno and the Paycock (Leicester Haymarket); Present Laughter (Birmingham Rep) and the Dublin premiere of The Vagina Monologues.

Dates and booking info here: http://www.dilliekeane.com/