SPORT RELIEF
BBC1, FRIDAY 13 MARCH, FROM 7PM
This year’s Sport Relief – which alternates every other year with Comic Relief – is a typically starstudded affair with special sketches, celeb challenges, panel shows and a new gaggle of presenters, including ex-arsenal Women’s footballer Alex Scott, Oti Mabuse, Emma Willis, comedian Tom Allen, Maya Jama and Rylan Clark-neal, joining Gary Lineker and Paddy Mcguinness on hosting duties throughout the big night. Here’s our pick of the highlights…
THE HEAT IS ON
In the lead-up to Sport Relief night, this hour-long special tells how Nick Grimshaw, Frankie Bridge, Robert Rinder, Krishnan Guru-murthy, Karim Zeroual, Samantha Womack and Louise Minchin took on the challenge of traversing 100 miles of ice across a Mongolian frozen lake. Except the Coronavirus outbreak meant the celebrities were faced with a last-minute change of plan, and they ended up trying to cross the world’s oldest desert in Namibia by foot, bike and skis in four days. It airs on BBC1, Wednesday 11 March, 9pm.
LINE OF DUTY
Actual Line Of Duty writer Jed Mercurio co-created this sketch, presented as an “exclusive ‘deleted’ scene from the series”, in which our anti-corruption heroes DS Arnott, DI Fleming and Superintendent Hastings are interrogating new character DC Taylor (Jason Isaacs), an accused corrupt copper who they suspect knows the identity of the real “H”. Unfortunately for DC
Taylor, he’s legally represented by crap lawyer David Rickman (Lee Mack). We cannot wait.
KILLING STEVES
Yes, there’s a spoof of Killing Eve, too, in which a mysterious blonde assassin is killing victims with the first name “Steve”. So, expect to see snooker legend Steve Davis, Corrie’s Steve Mcdonald, Olympian Steve Redgrave and presenter and magician Stephen Mulhern all meeting their deaths, in a funny way. But who is killing them?
ALL-STAR NETBALL
Two teams of celebrity players and sporting legends compete in the first-ever All-star Netball for Sport Relief. Huge netball fan and comedy legend Jennifer Saunders captains one of the celebrity teams, while the other is led by Strictly Come Dancing’s Oti Mabuse, who grew up playing the sport in South Africa.
CLASH OF THE CHANNELS
The Celebrity Boat Race returns, but whereas last time around, presenters from the BBC took on their counterparts from ITV, this year, there are also competing teams from Channel 4 and Sky. Under the training of Olympic champions James Cracknell OBE and Helen Glover MBE, all four teams battle it out on the waters of Salford Quays. Among the competitors are Louise Minchin, Steve Backshall, Maya Jama, Dr Ranj Singh, Andrea Mclean, Jamie Laing, Chelsee Healey and Dermot Murnaghan.