Every second year since 1989, Comic Relief organizes Red Nose Day. This charity event is always the occasion of great television moments for great causes. Red Nose Day 2011 took place on Friday 18th March from 7.00pm till 1.00am, on BBC One and BBC Two.Lenny Henry attended the King's Speech and Outnumbered ruined Andy Murray's day. The awaited (and absolutely brilliant) Doctor Who two-part minisode, written by the great Steven Moffat, gave us Amy Pond flirting with herself - no one will dare to label the series "kid material" after that (« Pond, put some trousers on. ») Ruby Wax, Claudia Winkleman and Miranda Hart cooked for Prime Minister David Cameron in a Masterchef special. Comic genius Peter Kay as Geraldine McQueen (his character from Britain's Got the Pop Factor...) and Susan Boyle covered I know him so well in a subtly hilarious parody of the 1985 Barbara Dickson and Elaine Paige duet video - "him" being now... Sir Trevor McDonald.
Take That sung Happy now and met their "clones", a band called Fake That: Alan Carr, James Corden, David Walliams, John Bishop and... Catherine Tate. Corden came back as Gavin & Stacey's Smithy in what was certainly the summit of the evening, one of funniest things in the genre seen in years. In Smithy saves Red Nose Day 2011, Lenny Henry asked the plumber for help and Smithy left his friend George Michael waiting in the car to chair a meeting with Lord Coe, Dermot O'Leary, Rupert Grint, JLS, Sir Paul McCartney, Justin Bieber, etc. Regrettably nobody thought to call Smithy to save the Autumnwatch sequence hosted by Harry Hill, or the Downton Abbey spoof directed by Adrian Edmonson and starring Jennifer Saunders, Kim Cattrall, Joanna Lumley, Harry Enfield and Simon Callow (as Julian Fellowes!) among others.
There were also some truly moving stories and the powerful ten-minute conclusion of an EastEnders storyline about the issue of sexual exploitation. Producers and writers of EastEnders ensured the story reflected the reality of young people caught up in sexual exploitation. They worked with advice from charities funded by Comic Relief and consulted with teenage girls who have experienced this form of abuse (1). David Tennant going to Africa, Helen Skelton walking on a wire across Battersea Power Station and Lenny Henry walking on fire (literally) were some of the many actions for this formidable star-studded night which raised more than £74 million.
Red Nose Day 2011 was hosted by Claudia Winkleman, Michael McIntyre, Graham Norton, Davina McCall, Lenny Henry, Dermot O'Leary, Fearne Cotton and Jonathan Ross (with a guest appearance by Matt Smith as The Doctor).
(1) http://www.rednoseday.com/whats-on/news/eastenders-and-comic-relief-join-forces
http://www.rednoseday.com/ (Official site)
http://www.rednoseday.com/sponsor-donate (Donate)
http://www.comicrelief.com/
