Comic legend Billy Connolly, local hero Gareth Gates, veteran singer Gilbert O’Sullivan and a landmark production of JB Priestley’s An Inspector Calls are all part of a winter wonderland of entertainment in Bradford.

The new season gets underway next month with Alhambra panto Robin Hood, starring Billy Pearce. Due to public demand there will be four early evening performances in January, starting at 6.15pm.

Christopher Timothy, who last trod the Alhambra boards as the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, returns in a moving dramatisation of The Diary of Anne Frank, while Bradford’s Gareth Gates stars in a hit international production of Hair, featuring numbers such as Aquarius and Let The Sunshine In.

There’s a landmark production of An Inspector Calls, by Bradford’s JB Priestley, which was a West End and Broadway hit, and the extraordinary story of Susan Boyle, from Britain’s Got Talent to international fame, is brought to life in I Dreamed A Dream. The Scottish singer will make a guest appearance in the show.

For dance fans, there’s theatrical sensation Stomp; urban street dance spectacle Elektro Kif; the Moscow City Ballet; the Nederlands Dans Theatre and the return of Matthew Bourne’s Nutcracker.

Sexy musical Chicago opens a UK tour at the Alhambra, starring Bernie Nolan and Ali Bastian. Also coming to town is romantic comedy Legally Blonde, bittersweet comedy Steel Magnolias, starring Denise Welch and Cheri Lunghi, Blood Brothers, starring Maureen Nolan, and classic musical The King and I.

Over at St George’s Hall, Lesley Garrett joins the Halle to start 2012 with a Viennese New Year concert, Strictly Come Dancing professionals Katya Virshilas and Pasha Kovalev deliver An Evening Of Dance And Conversation, and cage fighter-turned-actor, Alex Reid, makes his theatrical debut in saucy show Wildboyz.

There will be chuckles a-plenty from comics Omid Djalili, Reginald D Hunter, Stewart Lee, Fascinating Aida, Dave Spikey and Richard Herring.

Former Coronation Street actress Beverly Callard stars in fun show Hormonal Housewives, Lesley Ash and Brooke Kinsella join forces for All The Single Ladies, and there’s music from acts including The Osmonds, Belinda Carlisle, the Bootleg Beatles, Curtis Stigers, Status Quo and the Russian State Philharmonic Orchestra.

Radio presenter Andy Kershaw talks about his travel adventures, and the Spaghetti Western Orchestra, armed with more than 100 instruments, performs a fistful of Ennio Morricone classics from the movies that made Clint Eastwood a star.

For younger theatre-goers there’s 3D show Horrible Histories – Terrible Tudors and Vile Victorians.