WE COULD ALL DO WITH A LITTLE COMIC RELIEF
It’s Red Nose Day on Friday. Richard Jones talks to Sir Lenny Henry about what we can expect this year
IT has been 35 years since Red Nose Day was launched by director and scriptwriter Richard Curtis alongside Sir Lenny Henry in response to the famine in Ethiopia.
Over the past three and a half decades, the biennial event has raised in excess of £1.4 billion and seen millions of people, young and old, in schools and workplaces take part in fundraising activities.
However, like most things this year, the charity has been affected by Covid, and as we are still in the middle of a lockdown, the majority of Comic Relief’s fundraising activities will have to be done at home.
With that in mind, this year’s theme is designed to help the nation through what will hopefully be the final months of restrictions and “get us laughing at home”.
“We all need cheering up, so this year Red Nose Day will be a bit different,” Sir Lenny explains.
“Of course we want to raise as much money as possible for people who really need it in the UK and around the world.
“But we also want to make you smile and bring you some laughter.”
Thankfully, one thing that hasn’t changed this year is the quality of the entertainment and the calibre of guests.
As usual, stars of stage and screen will be taking part in hilarious sketches, live performances and big surprises.
Hosted by Sir Lenny, as well as Davina McCall, Paddy McGuinness, Alesha Dixon and David Tennant, tonight’s show will see David teaming up with Michael Sheen once more for a special instalment of their hit comedy series Staged.
Plus, Anna Friel and Keira
Knightley co-star in the greatest disaster movie never made, and Paddy and his fellow Top Gear hosts face interrogation by their most savage critics yet.
Dawn French is also set to make an appearance as her much-loved character the Rev Geraldine Granger from The Vicar of Dibley, and she will joined by the Rev Kate Bottley.
And fans of Fleabag and Normal People will get a confessional close-up, as the stars of two of TV’s biggest shows meet for a mash up like no other.
All next week, The One Show will be doing its bit for Comic Relief, by pitting celebrities together in a competition described as a ‘race with a difference’.
It will culminate in Alex Scott and Jermaine Jenas taking part in the world’s largest and longest Red Nose and Spoon Race. Other highlights will include Tim Vine rewarding the men and women of the UK’s military forces by spreading a smile, and Jack Whitehall hosting a Comic Relief Zoom meeting that quickly descends into chaos.
Some of the other famous faces involved this year are Benedict Cumberbatch, Dame Judi Dench, Karim Zeroual, Joe Lycett, Mo Gilligan, Roman Kemp and Shappi Khorsandi.
Sherlock and Marvel star Benedict says: “I think laughter is a panacea, it’s always been a national medicine.
“I think people reached out for it in lockdown; it’s a way of getting through life’s difficulties and release the tension to just have a moments respite from it; and that relief is much needed now.”
■ Comic Relief 2021 is on Friday, BBC1 at 7pm
BLAME IT ON THE YOUTS TIGGS DA AUTHOR HHHHH
THIS is like nothing Tiggs Da Author has done before. Previous mixtapes and singles have seen the Tanzania-born, south London-raised singer and rapper stick fairly close to the UK rap norm.
His debut album is something else, a glorious and wide-screen jumble of Afrobeat, soul and jazz that sounds like an aural feast delivered straight from Africa.
His reference points include Mali, Nigeria and of course Tanzania but often the gospel rap of Chance The Rapper is the nearest touchstone.
Tiggs ruminates about social dislocation and growing up without a father figure, but his lyrics are always offset by the most uplifting sounds.
POSTER GIRL ZARA LARSSON HHHHH
WE HOPE everything’s alright chez Larsson. The Poster Girl cover features the Swedish singer staring wistfully into the distance in a bedroom decorated, strangely, with posters of Larsson herself – hopefully being in Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list hasn’t gone to her head!
While this is an upbeat affair on the whole, there’s a fair bit on her mind in songs like Stick With You.
But would it be a 2020s pop album without a song about the “haters” and how they don’t matter? Then on Look What You’ve Done we get a disco banger with a string part right out of the Clean Bandit playbook.
To some, Larsson is the queen of bubblegum pop, and Poster Girl doesn’t disappoint in that regard, with chunky refrains, the trap beats and sassy production that suggests someone’s partial to a bit of K-pop.
EVERING ROAD TOM GRENNAN HHHHH
THIS ballad-heavy, melancholy break-up album sees Tom Grennan reflect on a past relationship. It takes its name from the east London street where he once shared a home with his former partner.
The introspective record, which is a follow-up to the Bedford-born musician’s 2018 debut Lighting Matches, gets off to a lively start with You Matter To Me, Something Better and Amen, which showcase his powerful, anthemic vocals.
However, the album quickly descends into a succession of more downcast songs such as It Hurts and Never Be A Right Time, which all have a similar theme and tone. This means the album is lacking in a bit of variety and becomes slightly repetitive as it progresses.
The album does not live up to the standards set by its best songs.