The big night when the Nose has it
Do-gooding doesn’t usually make for must-see television but Comic
Relief ’s biennial Red Nose Day extravaganza is a reliable exception.
The first three hours on BBC1 tonight will be hosted — or should that be herded? — by old hand Lenny Henry, so try to put any thoughts of Broadchurch’s creepy Ed Burnett out of your mind. Henry is ably assisted by some newer faces, including Sally Phillips, Warwick Davis and the exquisitely grumpy Romesh Ranganathan of Asian Provocateur — look it up on BBC3 if you haven’t yet had the pleasure.
Tonight’s most tantalising high jinks include comedians Johnny Vegas and Joe Lycett taking over the O2’s pizza restaurant, David Walliams’s Middle Class Jeremy Kyle spoof and Philomena Cunk: Moment of Wonder. The undoubted highlight, however, is Red Nose Day Actually, in which we get to catch up with our favourite characters from Love Actually, Richard Curtis’s 2003 romcom. What role does Kate Moss play? Are Martine McCutcheon and Hugh Grant still an item? And does The Walking Dead’s Andrew Lincoln communicate entirely in hand-held signs? Meanwhile, musical interludes come courtesy of Rag’n’Bone Man, Ed Sheeran and Take That’s Carpool Karaoke (yes, James Corden definitely knows all the words to Babe).