Miranda Hart and Sarah Millican head Glasgow Comedy Festival line-up

Miranda Hart and Sarah Millican are among the 416 shows at the festival

Top female comedians Miranda Hart and Sarah Millican are two of the biggest stars lined-up for the Glasgow Comedy Festival, which begins in March.

The programme for the festival, now in its 12th year, includes 416 shows at 46 venues across the city.

Other big names in the programme include Omid Djalili, Jerry Sadowitz, Rich Hall, Josh Widdicombe, Seann Walsh and Russell Kane.

The Glasgow International Comedy festival runs from 14 March to 5 April.

Hart, whose sitcom and appearances in TV drama Call the Midwife have catapulted her to success, will play two nights at the Hydro Arena, while Millican, who also has her own TV show, will play the Clyde Auditorium.

Other women headlining the festival include the Scottish veteran Dorothy Paul, cabaret trio Fascinating Aida, Australian comedian Pam Ann and Ruby Wax.

The festival also presents Scottish comedy with home-grown stars such as Des Clarke, Susan Calman, Craig Hill and Hardeep Singh Kohli.

There will be two specially-programmed showcases: The Homecoming Comedy Gala and The Commonwealth Stands Up, which feature talent from around the world.

There is also a strand called America Stands Up which brings four of the best new comics from the US to Glasgow for their European debut.

This year's line-up includes Daily Show writer Paul Mercurio.

Rory Bremner will be examining Scottish politics in the run-up to the independence referendum

To mark this year's independence referendum, the UK's top political satirist Rory Bremner will be joined by friends on stage at the Citizens Theatre to take the nation's political temperature and two of Scotland's top political comedians, Keir McAllister and Vladimir McTavish, will bring their show State of Scotland to Blackfriars Basement.

Tommy Sheppard, director of the festival organiser's the Scottish Comedy Agency, said: "This is a big year for Glasgow, and for Scotland, and I'm delighted to say that we've got a programme which steps up to the mark.

"This is our biggest and most ambitious line-up yet and is set to do our city proud".