Comic Relief raises £32m

THIS year’s Comic Relief raised just under £32million for good causes – £8million down on the Red Nose Day total for 2021.

Viewing figures for the BBC1 telethon on Friday were about the same as last year, averaging 2.9million, but well down on the 5.6million who watched in 2019, before the pandemic.

The star-studded three-hour broadcast, hosted by David Tennant, included comedy sketches in which celebrities auditioned for Eurovision; Kylie Minogue appeared with the cast of sitcom Ghosts; French and Saunders parodied The Traitors; and Sir Tony Robinson reprised his role as Blackadder sidekick Baldrick to read a bedtime story.