IAN McKELLAN in King Lear, Omid Djalili in Fiddler on the Roof, and a play by national treasure Alan Bennett are some of highlights in a stunning season just announced at Chichester Festival Theatre (CFT).

The multi award-winning duo of Jonathan Church and Alan Finch as artistic director and executive director, were always going to be big shoes to fill when they stepped down after a highly successful decade at the helm.

But newcomers Daniel Evans and Rachel Tackley have come up with a fantastically-enticing line-up for the 2017 season, with public bookings being taken online from March 4, and by phone and in person from March 7.

Chichester does musicals so well, with numerous past productions including last year’s five star-rated Half a Sixpence, Singing in the Rain and Gypsy going on to wow West End audiences and win awards.

So, Fiddler on the Roof, from July 10 to August 26, is sure to be eagerly anticipated. Award-winning comedian and actor Djalili, whose stage credits include Oliver! in the West?End, makes his Chichester debut playing Tevye.

There is a second musical to look forward to too, in the first new UK production of Tony Kushner and Jeannine Tesori’s Caroline, or Change (May 6 to June 3).

Major revivals being presented include Alan Bennett’s Forty Years On (April 21 to May 20), with One Foot in the Grave’s Richard Wilson leading the cast; Tennessee Williams’ Sweet Bird of Youth (June 2-24) with Academy Award winner Maria Gay Harden; and Alan Ayckbourn trilogy The Norman Conquests (September 18 to October 28).

And then there is the Shakespeare centrepiece of Lear (September 22 to October 28) with McKellan in the title role, and an ensemble cast. He was last on the Chichester stage in The Syndicate in 2011.

The Country Girls by Edna O’Brien (June 9 to July 8), The House They Grew Up In (July 14 to August 5), and Quiz (November 3 to December 2) are new plays.

The Chichester Festival Youth Theatre is putting on Beauty and the Beast, and Grimm Tales at the Cass Sculpture Foundation.