BOLTON Little Theatre is preparing for a landmark season with a packed programme of plays.

The 2001/2002 season will be the theatre's seventieth, and it begins in its smaller Forge Studio theatre with a production of Noel and Gertie, from September 15 to 22.

This is a witty and moving story of the professional and personal relationship between two of the century's greatest stage personalities -- Gertrude Lawrence and Noel Coward. Sheridan Morley devised the play, and it has the words and music of Noel Coward.

Typical

Alan Ayckbourn's comedy, Things We Do For Love, follows from October 20 to 27 in the main auditorium. This is a play typical of Ayckbourn's style -- enormously funny and tinged with occasional sadness.

Jimmie Chinn's warm Northern play, A Different Way Home, returns by popular demand, after it premiered on the amateur stage at the BLT just a couple of months ago. The play filled with laughter and tears runs in the Forge Studio from October 31 to November 4.

The company's Christmas show is the traditional Dickens' classic A Christmas Carol. It runs, including Saturday matinees from December 1 to 8.

Tom Stoppard's The Real Thing runs from January 19 to 26 in the Forge Studio. A Murder Is Announced runs from February 23 to March 2, but do not be alarmed, it is a classic Agatha Christie story featuring Miss Marple.

The Glass Menagerie, a modern classic by Tennessee Williams, features in the Forge Theatre from April 6 to 13.

BLT's final play of the season is 'Allo 'Allo, the comedy based on the television series by writers Jeremy Lloyd and David Croft.