CABARET time returns to the Saltaire's Caroline Club next week with a zany line up of acts to amuse and bemuse.

Funds from the comedy music night on Friday, January 16 will go towards Shipley-based Shoestring Forum Theatre Company putting on drama courses for adults with learning difficulties.

The cabaret nights, now in their fourth year, have already raised £24,000 towards helping improve people's mental health.

Doors open at 7pm with the first turn on at 8pm and the host will be impresario and agent to the stars Squinty McGinty, better known as actor Steve Huison of The Fully Monty and Coronation Street fame.

He will be assisted on the keyboard by Mike 'Snakefingers' Nicholas and co-host Billy Button with delights on the night including music man Perry Comover, Madame Zucchini and her theatre of vegetables, Emmerdale's Val Pollard real-life Charlie Hardwick on vocals, comic songster and dancer Billy Button, folk singer extraordinaire Precious Cleaver, dance band Cajun Aces and Scandalous Productions dance troupe.

Tickets are £10 from Saltaire Bookshop, the club itself or on Facebook , Twitter @CabaretSaltaire or e-mailing shoestringtheatre@hotmail.com.

It is best to buy early to avoid disappointment, says Mr Huison who is hoping the cabaret will be another sell-out.

The money raised so far has helped make it possible to start up a local base of an American not-for-profit organisation by opening a house which will eventually support people experiencing their first episode of serious mental illness.

Staff are currently being trained up to work at the home which will be run as a small community with limited use of medication.

But money raised next Friday will be used to fund a series of drama courses being run and developed by the Shoestring forum Theatre Company in connection with a national care agency called Creative Support.

"There's no funding out there any more for this type of work which is crying shame because the effect it has on people is genuinely amazing.

"Theatre helps people find ways to express and free themselves. So it is up to us to make it happen ourselves. Effectively we are working twice for the money, putting on the cabaret and then putting on the drama courses," said Mr Huison who co-runs the theatre company.

"I never know myself what the cabaret nights are going to turn out like but I do know there won't be anything else quite like it on offer next Friday! The Cajun Aces are a great band, everyone will be up on their feet."