Who’s hosting Comic Relief
Thursday, January 29, 2009 by Graham Kibble-White
David Tennant will be hosting the first hour of Comic Relief Night it’s been revealed today.
Due to air on 13 March, the Doctor Who star will co-present with Davina McCall. In a pre-recorded video screened at this morning’s press launch at The Empire Cinema, Leicester Square, he said: “It’s a great honour for me. I remember the first Red Nose Day when I was at school, buying the t-shirt and everyone joining in, And then, later, at drama school, me and my mate Alan McCue formed a Proclaimers tribute act and went busking in Sauchiehall Street. We were rubbish, but earned £65 in our lunch hour. The people of Glasgow are very generous.”
Also confirmed for this year’s bash, are Steve Jones and Claudia Winkleman, who’ll be hosting the celebrity-packed Let’s Dance for Comic Relief; Fearne Cotton, Denise Van Outen, Alesha Dixon, Cheryl Cole, Kimberly Walsh, Ben Shephard, Chris Moyles, Ronan Keating and Gary Barlow who’ll be attempting to climb Mount Kilimanjaro; a special episode of Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps and – best of all – Comic Relief Does the Apprentice.
Contestant Carol Vorderman introduced the latter to the press. “In the past it was very much ring up friends and get things donated and get people to buy auction prizes. It was fabulous and raised a lot of money. This time it was decided – and we didn’t know till we arrived – that it would be a proper Apprentice project as they would give to those in the normal programme.” So no calling in favours from famous friends.
By the looks of the trailer, it appears the teams are tasked with making a television advert – but for what remains unclear.
Lining up, alongside Vorderman, to do Sir Alan’s bidding are: Jack Dee, Gerald Ratner, Patsy Palmer, Michelle Mone, Ruby Wax (“With whom I became more intimate than I have with any other woman in my life”, said the former Countdown star), Fiona Phillips, Jonathan Ross, Alan Carr and Gok Wan.
Find out more about Red Nose Day at the official site: www.rednoseday.com
Gerald Ratner?!
Surely we can expect Sir Alan to direct the words “a load of old tut” in Ratner’s direction at some juncture.
Not many actual comedians listed there…
Dissing his decanter aside, isn’t Ratner at least as similarly qualified as Alan Sugar, if not more so?
Sigh. I gave up on such long-running programmes about a decade ago.
The final episode of The Offfice, series two, suitably skewered the “enforced wackiness”. The difficulty is trying to describe ones disdain for the generic “Holby City Stars Singing Songs From the Shows” without being accused of not caring for, as Sir Bob is alledged to have said, “Starving African kids with flies round their mouths”.
Yes, the charity is important, but it’s just not entertaining anymore. With more and more “Celebrity Strictly Come Do Something Other than What You Normally Do” it stands out in the schedule less and less.
How to improve it? Armando Ianucci proved himself with the “Time Trumpet” item two years ago. Let him take control – anyone else remember the genius that what 1997′s “Election Night Armistace”, complete with BBC Choral Unit singing news themes. Add an hour of Peter Serafinowicz as el Tel and some more leftfield acts – Mat Fraser, Liz Carr and Lawrence Clark off BBC Ouch please!
Or even better, chuck all the sketches on a DVD and flog it for cash, then run the show without the comedy as more of a Crimewatch style proggy.
Oh, and more than just 4 seconds of “Dick and Dom in Das Boot”.
It’s not so much “Comic Relief”, but “Light Entertainment Relief” these days, it seems from the line up.