Comic Relief (charity)

Comic Relief
Genre	Telethon
Created by	Richard Curtis Lenny Henry
Presented by	Current: Lenny Henry Jonathan Ross Miranda Hart Sally Phillips Luisa Omielan Rob Beckett Romesh Ranganathan Warwick Davis Richard Osman Greg Davies Graham Norton Russell Brand Noel Fielding (See full list)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
Production
Location(s)	BBC Television Centre (1988–2013) The London Palladium (2015) Building Six at The O2 (2017)
Camera setup	Multiple
Running time	Various
Release
Original network	BBC One
Original release	5 February 1988 – present
Chronology
Related shows	Children in Need Sport Relief
External links
Website

Comic Relief is an operating British charity, founded in 1985 by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and comedian Lenny Henry in response to famine in Ethiopia. The highlight of Comic Relief's appeal is Red Nose Day, a biennial telethon held in March, alternating with sister project Sport Relief.

A prominent biennial event in British popular culture, Comic Relief is one of the two high-profile telethon events held in the United Kingdom, the other being Children in Need, held annually in November.

Comic Relief was launched live on Noel Edmonds' Late, Late Breakfast Show on BBC1, on Christmas Day 1985 from a refugee camp in Sudan. The idea for Comic Relief came from the charity worker Jane Tewson, who established it as the operating name of Charity Projects, a registered charity in England and Scotland.

On 4 April 1986 the inaugural live fund-raising show, "Comic Relief Utterly Utterly Live", was staged at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London featuring popular alternative comedians and pop stars (including Rowan Atkinson, Billy Connolly, Stephen Fry, Lenny Henry, Kate Bush and Cliff Richard). An audio recording was released on WEA which included a live performance of the charity single "Living Doll" by Cliff Richard and the Young Ones.

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