Comic Relief
Comic Relief is a British charity, founded in 1985 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Sir Lenny Henry in response to the famine in Ethiopia.[3] The concept of Comic Relief was to get British comedians to make the public laugh, while raising money to help people around the world and in the United Kingdom.[3][4] A new CEO, Samir Patel, was announced in January 2021.[5]
This article is about the British charity. For the current American charity, see Comic Relief, Inc. For the generic character designation, see Comic relief. For the former American charity, see Comic Relief USA. For other uses, see Comic Relief (disambiguation).Comic Relief
Charity telethon
United Kingdom
English
BBC Television Centre (1988–2013)
The London Palladium (2015)
The O2 (2017)
BBC Elstree Centre (2019–21)[1]
Dock10 (2022–)[2]
Various
5 February 1988 –
present
The highlight of Comic Relief's appeal is Red Nose Day, an annual (previously biennial) telethon held in March. The first live fundraising evening, held on 4 April 1986, featured comedians and pop stars, including Rowan Atkinson, Billy Connolly, Stephen Fry, Kate Bush and co-founder Lenny Henry.[6]
A prominent annual event on British television, Comic Relief is one of two high-profile telethon events held in the UK, the other being Children in Need, held annually in November. At the end of the Red Nose Day telethon on 14 March 2015, it was announced that in the 30-year history of Comic Relief, the Red Nose Day and Sport Relief appeals had raised in excess of £1.4 billion.[7]
Red Nose Day history[edit]
Comic Relief was launched live on Noel Edmonds' Late, Late Breakfast Show on BBC1, on Christmas Day 1985 from a refugee camp in Sudan. The idea for Comic Relief came from the charity worker Jane Tewson, who established it as the operating name of Charity Projects, a registered charity in England[8] and Scotland.[9]
On 4, 5 and 6 April 1986[10] the inaugural live fundraising show,[11] "Comic Relief Utterly Utterly Live", was staged at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London featuring popular alternative comedians and pop stars (including Rowan Atkinson, Billy Connolly, Stephen Fry, Lenny Henry, Kate Bush and Cliff Richard[12]). An audio recording was released on WEA which included a live performance of the charity single "Living Doll" by Cliff Richard and the Young Ones.[10]
The highlight of Comic Relief is Red Nose Day.[3] On 8 February 1988, Lenny Henry went to Ethiopia and celebrated the very first Red Nose Day telethon. Over 150 celebrities and comedians participated. The event raised £15 million and attracted 30 million television viewers on BBC1. To date, Richard Curtis and Lenny Henry are still active participants of the Red Nose Day telethon which continues to raise funds for numerous charities that help children in need and tackle worldwide poverty.
The charity states that its aim is to "bring about positive and lasting change in the lives of poor and disadvantaged people, which we believe requires investing in work that addresses people's immediate needs as well as tackling the root causes of poverty and injustice".[13]
One of the fundamental principles behind working at Comic Relief is the "Golden Pound Principle" where every single donated pound (£) is spent on charitable projects. All operating costs, such as staff salaries, are covered by corporate sponsors, or interest earned on money waiting to be distributed.
Currently, its main supporters are the BBC, BT, TK Maxx and British Airways. The BBC is responsible for the live television extravaganza on Red Nose Day; BT provides the telephony, and TK Maxx sells merchandise on behalf of the charity.
Until 2022, Sainsbury's sold Red Noses in their Supermarkets, Local Stores and Petrol Stations.
In 2002, Comic Relief and BBC Sport teamed up to create Sport Relief, a new initiative, aiming to unite the sporting community and culminate in a night of sport, entertainment and fundraising on BBC One. Sport Relief was a biennial charity event, and the campaign deliberately alternated years with Red Nose Day, Comic Relief's flagship event. Red Nose Day occurs in odd-numbered years, and Sport Relief in even-numbered years.
In 2009, Comic Relief launched a website calling for a financial transaction tax, the "Robin Hood" tax.
On 14 March 2015, at the end of that year's Red Nose Day telethon it was announced that in the 30-year history of Comic Relief, the Red Nose Day and Sport Relief appeals had raised in excess of £1bn (£1,047,083,706).[7]
In 2021 it was announced that Red Nose Day would become an annual event and, starting from 2022, there would be no more Sport Relief telethons. From the same year onwards, the appeal shows of Red Nose Day would now take place at the former Sport Relief studio at Dock10, MediaCityUK in Salford.[14][15]
In 2024, on Lenny Henry’s final telethon as a presenter, he revealed that the overall £1 billion announced in 2015 had risen to £1.14 billion (£1,140,064,067).
1980s and 1990s[edit]
1989[edit]
The Second Red Nose Day was held on Friday 10 March 1989 with the slogan: "Red Nose Day 2", and raised £27 million.[21] This is also when the event would start generally being scheduled in mid-March, often close to, or on 17 March – St Patrick's Day.
1991[edit]
The Third Red Nose Day was held on Friday 15 March 1991 with the slogan "The Stonker", and raised £20 million. The charity song was a double A-sided single featuring "The Stonk" performed by Hale & Pace and "The Smile Song" performed by Victoria Wood.
1993[edit]
The Fourth Red Nose Day was held on Friday 12 March 1993 with the slogan "The Invasion of the Comic Tomatoes", and raised £18 million.
1995[edit]
The Fifth Red Nose Day was held on Friday 17 March 1995, with the slogan "What A Difference A Day Makes", and raised £22 million.
1997 event[edit]
The 1997 Red Nose Day event was held on 14 March with the slogan "Small Change – Big Difference". The event raised over £27m for charitable causes.[22] The Spice Girls song "Who Do You Think You Are?" was the official Comic Relief single with 672,577 physical copies sold.[23] The telethon featured an appearance from Father Ted Crilly (Dermot Morgan) and Father Dougal McGuire (Ardal O'Hanlon), characters from the sitcom Father Ted.
1999 event[edit]
The 1999 Red Nose Day was held on 12 March and raised over £35m. Perennial hosts Jonathan Ross and Lenny Henry were joined by Davina McCall, Chris Evans, Ben Elton, Jack Dee and Julian Clary, with Peter Snow providing regular updates on donations. Angus Deayton hosted a live cross-over panel game, Have I Got Buzzcocks All Over. A parody of the Doctor Who series starring Rowan Atkinson as the Doctor, Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death, was featured during the show, as was Wetty Hainthropp Investigates (a Victoria Wood parody of Hetty Wainthropp Investigates), The Naughty Boys (a mock 1967 pilot for Men Behaving Badly) and guest appearance by Rex the Runt.
On Radio 1, Simon Mayo set the record of 37 hours of consecutive broadcasting (which was later broken in March 2011 by Chris Moyles on the same station for 52 hours, "BBC Radio 1's Longest Show Ever with Chris Moyles and Comedy Dave for Comic Relief", the world record for the longest show in radio history). The 1999 Comic Relief song was "When the Going Gets Tough" by Boyzone.
2000s[edit]
2001 event[edit]
The 2001 Red Nose Day was held on 16 March. The total raised was £55 million.[24] As well as donations on the night of the TV show, money is raised from countrywide sponsored events and from merchandising, particularly of the red noses themselves. 5.8 million red noses were sold, approximately one-tenth of the UK population. Celebrity Big Brother 1 was produced in honour of Comic Relief, with the finale airing as part of the Red Nose Day festivities.[25]
2003 event[edit]
The 2003 Red Nose Day was held on 14 March. The fund raising activities included Lenny Henry providing the voice of the speaking clock between 10 and 23 March with the cost of the call going to Comic Relief. On the night of the live show itself, £35m was raised, an on-the-night record.[26] A total of £61.6 million was raised that year, setting a new record.[24]
Jack Dee stood outside at the top of a pole for the duration of the show, parodying the acts of David Blaine. Celebrity Driving School led up to the event,[27] with the test results announced during the telethon: they all failed.[26]
The hosts of Red Nose Day 2003 were: Jonathan Ross, Lenny Henry, Anthony McPartlin, Declan Donnelly, Vic Reeves,
Bob Mortimer, Graham Norton, Adam Buxton and Joe Cornish.
2020s[edit]
2021 event[edit]
The 2021 event took place on Friday 19 March 2021. The event raised £52 million and was once again hosted by Sir Lenny Henry alongside Davina McCall, Paddy McGuinness, David Tennant and Alesha Dixon.
Sketches included a crossover between Catherine Tate's Nan character and James Bond (Daniel Craig), a Comic Relief Zoom meeting featuring Jack Whitehall and various celebrities and a trailer for 2020 - The Movie featuring Keira Knightley, Michael Sheen, Jodie Whittaker, KSI, Anna Friel and Dame Joan Collins. Sheen and Tennant also starred in a special edition of their TV show Staged while McGuinness and his Top Gear co-stars, Freddie Flintoff and Chris Harris were asked questions by children in a segment hosted by Radio 1's Jordan North. The Vicar of Dibley's Geraldine Granger (played by Dawn French) appeared alongside the Reverend Kate Bottley to open the show. There were musical performances from The Proclaimers, Gabrielle and the cast of Back to the Future the Musical. After the main show, Amanda Holden and Jason Manford presented The Great Comic Relief Prizeathon.[31]
2022 event[edit]
Red Nose Day took place on 18 March 2022.[32]
Some of 2022's fundraising challenges that took place prior to the main televised event included a 100-mile river challenge, which saw BBC Radio 1 presenter Jordan North rowing from London to Burnley,[33][34] and Tom Daley's Homecoming Challenge[35] which involved rowing, swimming, cycling and running.[36] Footage of the latter challenge, which took place between the Aquatics Centre in London and Plymouth, was featured in a BBC One documentary called Tom Daley's Hell of a Homecoming which was broadcast on 14 March 2022.[36]
The main Red Nose Day programming was split into three sections with the three-hour comedy special and The Great Comic Relief Prizeathon[37] appearing on BBC One before and after the news, whilst Comic Relief at the Movies took a 10pm slot on BBC Two.[38]
The 2022 Comic Relief show featured parodies of The Repair Shop (with Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and Dame Judi Dench) as well as various popstars in David Walliams and Matt Lucas' Rock Profile sketches, whilst Tim Vine and Kiri Pritchard-McLean took part in a One Man and His Dog competition. The late-night programme The Great Comic Relief Prizeathon was presented by Vernon Kay and AJ Odudu, with an hour-long Best Bits compilation being transmitted a couple of days after the event.[39]
2023 event[edit]
The 2023 event was held on 17 March 2023. Lenny Henry did not appear as the telethon's main presenter due to commitments with another project. Instead, the role was filled by David Tennant. An open sketch saw Henry regenerating into Tennant as a parody of Doctor Who. £34 million was raised from donations.[40]
2024 event[edit]
The 2024 event was held on 15 March 2024. This was the last telethon for Lenny Henry, the fundraiser's founder after 39 years of being the presenter of the telethon. As part of the tributes to Henry, co-host David Tennant, who also hosted the previous year's telethon, thanked Henry for "an amazing tour of duty". The event raised £38 million from donations.[41]
In April 1986, the first Comic Relief charity record was released. It featured Cliff Richard and the cast of The Young Ones in a rendition of Richard's late 50s hit "Living Doll".
Some of the money raised from the sale of each single is donated to Comic Relief. Normally, a song is released just before the official Red Nose Day. There have been exceptions, such as "(I Want To Be) Elected" which was released to coincide with the 1992 UK general election. Before the single released in 1995, Comic Relief records were all more-or-less comedy releases, mostly involving an actual band or singer teamed up with a comedy group. From 1995 on, they have been generally more serious, although the promo videos still feature comical moments.
2003 saw a return to the format of old. From 2005 to 2011, two Comic Relief singles were released each Red Nose Day, a song by a mainstream artist and also a comedy song.
In 1991, a music video was created called "Helping Hands", which included numerous children's television puppet personalities, including characters from The House of Gristle, Fraggle Rock, Rainbow, Roland Rat, Thunderbirds, Round the Bend!, Bill & Ben, The Gophers, Spitting Image, Jim Henson's Tale of the Bunny Picnic and more. In 1993 a follow-up single happened, this time feature the biggest stars of children televisions at the time called "You Can Be a Hero". Neither song was ever released.
The biggest-selling Comic Relief single is Tony Christie and Peter Kay's "Is This the Way to Amarillo", with 1.28 million copies sold. Westlife's 2001 cover of Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl" is the second biggest-seller, followed by 1986's "Living Doll" and the Spice Girls' 1997 double-A side single "Mama"/"Who Do You Think You Are?", with Boyzone's 1999 cover of "When the Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going" rounding up the top five.[59]
In addition, the first Red Nose Day schools' song ("Make Someone Happy") was published in 2007. A CD of the song, together with backing tracks and fundraising ideas, was sent free of charge to all primary schools in the UK - during February - by the education music publisher 'Out of the Ark Music'. Schools would be free to use the song in assemblies, singathons, or other fundraising activities. A second Red Nose Day Song has been released for every school in the UK, to use free of charge. It can be downloaded from the Red Nose Day 09 website, or watched on YouTube, and a copy has been sent to every primary school in the UK. It was again published by 'Out of the Ark' music, and contained a more upbeat melody than the version released in 2007. It was recorded at Hook Studios, Hook, Surrey, by the Out of the Ark Choir, which is completely made up of children. The children in the video wear Stella McCartney's special edition Comic Relief T-shirts, and was filmed in black and white so that only the red stood out.
Criticism[edit]
There has been some concern about the lack of gender equality in the causes supported by Comic Relief, with much funding going to politicised women's charities or charities focusing on women. Writing in The Spectator, Ross Clark raised the question, 'Why do all these women's charities...feel the need to disguise their fundraising in the prat-fest that is Comic Relief, rather than appealing directly to the public?' He added, 'Are they worried that if the British public realised where their money was going, they would be less inclined to be so generous?'[67]
The British Stammering Association criticised comedian Lenny Henry over his opening sketch for the 2011 telethon, during which he spoofed the film The King's Speech and grew impatient with Colin Firth in his portrayal of King George VI as he stammered over his speech. The Sun reported that the British Stammering Association had branded the sketch as 'a gross and disgusting gleefulness at pointing out someone else's misfortune'.[68]
In December 2013, an edition of the BBC One series Panorama pointed out that between 2007 and 2009, millions of pounds donated to Comic Relief had been invested in funds which appeared 'to contradict several of its core aims', with shares in tobacco, alcohol and arms firms.[69]
The 2017 event was strongly criticised by viewers for various technical issues, glitches and having two adult-orientated skits shown before the 9 pm watershed, one where Vic Reeves showed a fake penis to Good Morning Britain presenter Susanna Reid, and another featuring a scene in which presenter Graham Norton asks model Cara Delevingne why she had sex on a plane. The event was also criticised for two pre-watershed instances of profanity, one involving a Mrs. Brown's Boys skit where the titular character does a V sign (a gesture that is deemed profane in the United Kingdom), and another involving Russell Brand after a technical blunder caused him to swear and say "Fuck" after being cut off.[70][71] In total 338 complaints were made to Ofcom, however the regulator chose not to investigate because the comedy sketches "were inexplicit and consistent with the live, unpredictable format of this established charity programme", whilst recognising that some "were not to everyone's taste".[72]
In 2017, a video featuring Ed Sheeran meeting and rescuing a child in Liberia for Comic Relief was criticised as 'poverty porn' and was given the 'Rusty Radiator' award for the 'most offensive and stereotypical fundraising video of the year'.[73][74]
Writing in The Guardian in 2017, Labour MP David Lammy argued that Comic Relief perpetuated problematic stereotypes of Africa, and that they had a responsibility to use its powerful position to move the debate on in a more constructive way by establishing an image of African people as equals.[75]
In 2018, in response to Lammy's comments and the backlash to Sheeran's video, Comic Relief announced they would take steps towards change by halting their use of celebrities for appeals.[76]
However, in February 2019, Lammy also criticised Stacey Dooley for posting on social media about her trip to Uganda for Comic Relief, saying that 'the world does not need any more white saviours', and that she was perpetuating 'tired and unhelpful stereotypes' about Africa.[77][78] The pressure group 'No White Saviours' argued that Comic Relief had pledged to make changes to their celebrity campaigns in the past, and now needed to put them into practice.[79]
The remarks by Lammy were believed to have damaged coverage of Red Nose Day; viewership dropped and the donations received for the broadcast in March 2019 fell by £8 million and the money raised that year was the lowest since 2007.[80][81] In 2020, as a result of Lammy's intervention, Comic Relief announced that it would no longer send celebrities to Africa nor portray Africa with images of starving people or critically ill children.[82] Instead, they would be using local film makers to provide a more "authentic" perspective and give agency back to African people.[83]