The history of Comic Relief: Comedy, fundraising and keeping the nation smiling

Comic Relief was founded by Richard Curtis and Jane Tewson in 1985 with the aim of using comedy to raise money.

The 1988 Night of Comic Relief was the culmination of years of work and became a biennial fixture in the schedules, broadcast on Red Nose Day. Lenny Henry and Griff Rhys Jones fronted the first night, with Jonathan Ross.

More than 30 million people tuned in to watch 'Blackadder - the Cavalier Years' and the Young Ones on 'University Challenge' as well as stars including Mel Smith and Kim Wilde. The night raised £15million for people in Africa and the UK.

The following year was even more successful with more thanr 20 million people across the UK taking part in 70,000 activities for Red Nose Day, raising £26.9 million.

The 1989 TV extravaganza included the premiere of Night of the Comic Dead - a terrifying tale of ordinary folk haunted by a disgusting array of Comic Ghouls from French and Saunders to Frank Carson.

Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and Kathy Burke also reached number 3 in the UK charts with their single 'Lananeenoonoo' – with a little help from Bananarama. Neighbours stars and singers Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan also joined in the fun.

Memorable moments from 1991’s event, which raised £20million, included Tom Jones thrashing Theophilus P. Wildebeest to win 'Battle of the Sex Gods' and French and Saunders' incredible ABBA performance.

1993 was the year of the tomato-syle Red Noses which were bought 3,307,000 people. 

TV performances included Angus Deayton, Ian Hislop and Paul Merton taking in a number of sporty celebs in Have I Got a Question of Sport For You and Mr Bean in a 'Bling Date' spectacular.

In 1995, Dawn French raised by kissing Hugh Grant while Chrissie Hynde, Cher, Neneh Cherry released Love Can Build A Bridge selling 310,000 copies. The night also saw Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer attempt to drink 75 pints of bitter during Nilsson's Without You.

Music also proved a huge crowd-pleaser in 1997 when Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and Kathy Burke joined the Spice Girls in remaking their iconic music video for the single Who Do You Think You Are?, selling 672,577 copies. More than £27m was raised on the night.

Red Nose Day 1999 broke records - including 'The most naked people on stage at one time'. It also saw Johnny Depp and Dawn French in a Vicar of Dibley special and Alan Partridge performing his Kate Bush medley.

'Say Pants to Poverty” was the message of the 2001 fundraiser which saw great swathes of the public sport their pants with pride, raising a total of £55 million.

J.K. Rowling's released special edition Harry Potter books raised a further £6 million.

TV highlights included Jack Dee reigning victorious in the celebrity Big Brother house and Ali G interviewing Posh and Becks.

In 2003, Celebrity Fame Academy saw top TV personalities including Ruby Wax and Fearne Cotton attempt to wow the judges with their vocal skills. Dawn French took on the role of Harry Potter in a spoof special and Gareth Gates and The Kumars reached No 1 with Spirit in the Sky - the second-biggest single of 2003.

In total, a huge £61.6 million was raised.

Singing was also a highlight of the 2005 event with elebs put their vocal skills to the test on Comic Relief Does Fame Academy whilst Rowan Atkinson unleashed his inner superhero as Spider-Plant Man. Peter Kay and Tony Christie performed Amarillo for the first time on Red Nose Day live. The single went straight to No 1 and stayed at the top spot for seven weeks. It sold over one million copies, becoming the biggest-selling download single of 2005.

Millions watched as Catherine Tate's infamous school girl character, Lauren, seriously 'bovvered' former Prime Minister, Tony Blair at Number 10 in 2007 while Borat made a unique TV appearance live from Kazakhstan. The official music single ‘Walk this Way’ by Girls Aloud and the Sugababes hit the top of the charts while I’m The Proclaimers ‘(I’m Gonna Be) 500 Miles’ – featuring Peter Kay as Phoenix Night’s Brian Potter and Matt Lucas as Little Britain’s Andy Pipkin.

In 2009, Gary Barlow lead a BT sponsored team of celebrities up Mount Kilimanjaro, raising a whopping £3.5m along the way.

The night of TV featured a live performance from Take That, Smithy giving the England men's football team a pep talk. In total, £82.3m was raised, smashing all previous Red Nose Day records.

Celebrity chums Lorraine Kelly, Scott Mills, Kara Tointon, Olly Murs, Ronnie Ancona, Dermot O'Leary, Peter White, Nadia Sawalha and Craig David faced a gruelling 100km trek in Kenya and raised an incredible £1.36m in 2011.

And Chris Moyles earned a place in the Guinness Book of records for his 52-hour marathon show on Radio One, raising a phenomenal £2.8 million. It was another record-breaking year, with the event generating £108,436,277.

Melanie C, Jack Dee, Chelsee Healey, Phillips Idowu, Greg James and Dara O'Briain raised £1.1 million rowing the Zambezi river in 2013. 

On the night of TV the public were treated to Call the Midwife, Simon Cowell's wedding and the return of two comedy legends, David Brent and the Vicar of Dibley. 

Dermot O’Leary smashed it for Comic Relief with his 24-hour day of dance in 2015. His non-stop jiggling, bouncing and banter on live TV raised a cool £1 million.

On the night, The Vicar of Dibley got punchy in a hilarious bid to become a bishop, Daniel Craig and Roger Moore sounded seriously off-key as 007, while Stephen Hawking transformed into a super-size robot and attacked David Walliams in Little Britain.

There were a whole host of 24-hour challenges raking in the cash in 2017.

They included DJs Scott Mills and Chris Stark undertaking an epic LOL-a-thon, telling joke after joke on air all through the night. Then Radio 2's Sara Cox boogied to a whole 24 hours of 80s tunes, raising well over one million pounds. A YouTube first, famous vloggers also took part in a 'RedOut', spreading an important message about vulnerable young people.

The night of TV featured Ed Sheeran and Kurrupt FM joining forces in a daring new music video, Take That and James Corden tried to break America in carpool karaoke and the cast of Love Actually reunited for a heart-warming ten minute special.

In 2019, there was a special reunion of the cast of Four Weddings and a Funeral for the first time in 25 years for 'One Red Nose Day and a Wedding'. The year also saw the return of the Kilimanjaro challenge with nine celebrities including Ed Balls, Dani Dyer and Shirley Ballas taking on the 19,000 feet climb up Africa's highest mountain.

The event raised £63, 548, 668 to help people in the UK and around the world.

Sir Lenny Henry, Alesha Dixon, Davina McCall, Paddy McGuinness, and David Tennant hosted 2021’s hilarious night of TV, which featured Justin Bieber’s first British TV performance in five years, Bond encountering Catherine Tate’s Nan, and Dawn French giving a fierce lip sync performance as the Vicar of Dibley.

Olympic legend, Tom Daley took on the ultimate challenge of physical and mental endurance by taking on four new Team GB disciplines, rowing, cycling, open-water swimming and marathon running in 2022.

There were also celebrations as Comic Relief passed the momentous milestone of £1.5 billion raised in its 37 years.

In 2023, Emma, Oti and Rylan climbed the cold and unforgiving Cairngorm Mountain in the Scottish Highlands; Radio 1's very own Arielle Free took on 50 hours of cycling over 5 days, whilst Djing non-stop; and, on the eve of Red Nose Day, Gethin Jones kept dancing for an entire 24 hours.

In 2024 we saw Sir Lenny Henry hosting Red Nose Day for the final time, after nearly four decades of presenting.

The night of TV saw some extra special moments for Sir Lenny throughout the course of the night.

The cast of W1A reunited in a bid to find his replacement and a cast of award-winning actors and comedians played some of the most iconic characters from series two of The Traitors.

Meanwwhile, BBC Radio 1’s Mollie King swapped her mic for a bike and conquered the biggest endurance challenge of her life, and the formidable foursome of Sara Davies, Vicky Pattison, Alex Scott and Laura Whitmore, battled unforgiving conditions trekking across the Arctic Circle to raise £630,294 in Comic Relief’s coldest ever challenge.