One's I remember as the best are 2003, 05 and 07 (probably due to my age). 2009 was the first year I remember the quality starting to drop, and probably around the same time with CiN.
I know it's unlikely, but personally I'd have put on a "Best of Comic Relief" after the news, featuring the best sketches from the past.
Good news?
"Join Rob Brydon as he trips the light fantastic amongst the funniest, sweetest and silliest musical sketches and performances from the Comic Relief store cupboard."
1993 is one of my earliest TV memories, particularly the Casualty special featuring someone who’d been run over by a steamroller which made quite the impression to four year old me.
It was always a fun challenge to try and stay awake for the whole night and every year I’d get a little closer but always fall asleep near the end, I think 2003 was the first year I achieved it and it all seemed a bit anticlimactic as the live stuff had long ended and instead it fizzled out with an old clip show repeat from a few years earlier. 2005 had a big live ending at least which gave more of a reason to stick to the end.
The thing I was most excited about in 1993 was the fact Chris Evans was going to be involved, at that point my favourite person on telly and I think his hosting of the Snottery - a prize draw relating to the numbers in your noses - was his first ever appearance on BBC1.
It really did seem exciting in those days to watch a show that was seemingly never going to end, I'm not sure I ever made it until the final total live but after I got my own video I obviously recorded the whole thing. The last one I remember recording and watching in its entirety was 2001, which today has been live tweeted in this brilliant thread.
FRI 16 MAR 2001: Comic Relief (BBC1, 7pm-3am)
As a young comedy buff, Red Nose Day was such a big deal, so many of my favourite stars taking part, that I would record the whole thing.
I kept that year's VHS, so this afternoon I'm going to spin through it and see what's there. pic.twitter.com/A35di2xVdn
I remember reading in 2003 that they were very concerned the Iraq War might start on Red Nose Day and they had various contingency plans if they had to do extended news bulletins or indeed go off BBC1 completely, but fortunately it didn't kick off for another few days.
Overall I think my favourite years were in the 1990s (as tends to be the case with most things!) but looking at what was actually in each show, my favourite sketches and moments were spread out between them all so it's hard to pick a particular highlight. I think 1995 was the one that probably had the best, slightly chaotic atmosphere in the studio if I remember right.
Probably my favourite sketch was 2003's Blankety Blank but I think my all-time favourite moment was Andy Crane being gunged in 1988 just because of what it felt like at the time as a kid, with our little corner of telly being acknowledged and allowed to join in with "proper" BBC 1 in the evening, which didn't really seem to happen back then.
Last edited by Blake Connolly on 17 March 2021 12:29pm
I'm sure it is an age thing but 1993-2003 for me, but to be fair there has still been more hits and misses since then. My favourite of recent years was the one they did in a theatre, the first I think after the closure of TVC so I guess 2013.
What I used to like in the 90s was it truly was an all day affair beginning on The Big Breakfast before school, where it would dominate the day, then you had a CBBC block dedicated to it when you came home with a nice sneak peak behind the scenes of the evening show before the main event itself.
I'm sure it is an age thing but 1993-2003 for me, but to be fair there has still been more hits and misses since then. My favourite of recent years was the one they did in a theatre, the first I think after the closure of TVC so I guess 2013.
2015 i think. And I thought that was the dullest! Even they seemed to think so too as the following one was the 02 year which was supposed to bring the old spark back but sadly was just a car crash. For me the last great old school one was 2005. After that it just seemed to lose it's identity and has become increasingly generic. 2019 felt completely lifeless. They do what they know pulls in the money which is fair enough and obviously the most important thing but not playing it safe I think is what people liked about Comic Relief which gave it an edge over Children In Need. Now the two are barely distinguishable.
As I think has been said before the arrival of Sport Relief somewhat damaged Comic Relief, especially once Sport Relief moved to March and the original sporting premise was mostly dropped. Today they are too interchangeable. Sport Relief doesn't have enough sport features and Comic Relief has less comedy.
Good point.
Moving Sport Relief to March made no real sense. The first one was in July, when the weather was more favorable to outdoor sports and fundraising. I wonder if moving to mid March was down to sport celebrity avalabillty - as they are more likely to be in training or somewhere in the world in competitve action.
And both are slowly merging into each other. Witness motor racing driver Billy Mongers endurance event. Whilst taking nothing away from his achievements - that really should be next year during Sport Relief.
If the Comic Relief organization have any decent ideas for next year, they'll move Sport Relief 2022 to the last weekend in July or the first in August, as there'll be the second largest multi sport multi national sports event taking place in the middle of the country. Tie in with that, and it may make a real benefit to the Sport Relief fundraising event.
I'm sure it is an age thing but 1993-2003 for me, but to be fair there has still been more hits and misses since then. My favourite of recent years was the one they did in a theatre, the first I think after the closure of TVC so I guess 2013.
2015 i think. And I thought that was the dullest! Even they seemed to think so too as the following one was the 02 year which was supposed to bring the old spark back but sadly was just a car crash. For me the last great old school one was 2005. After that it just seemed to lose it's identity and has become increasingly generic. 2019 felt completely lifeless. They do what they know pulls in the money which is fair enough and obviously the most important thing but not playing it safe I think is what people liked about Comic Relief which gave it an edge over Children In Need. Now the two are barely distinguishable.
Yeah, this year's Comic Relief even has a Doctor Who sketch, but Doctor Who, since 2005 when it came back, usually features on Children in Need instead. The last time they were on Comic Relief was when they did Curse of Fatal Death, I think? And that was in 1999, 21 years ago!
Does anyone else remember this? I seem to remember it was shown on one of these telethon nights, am guessing Children In Need as the TOTP set looks quite Christmassy. I remember sitting watching with my 3D glasses.
Does anyone else remember this? I seem to remember it was shown on one of these telethon nights, am guessing Children In Need as the TOTP set looks quite Christmassy. I remember sitting watching with my 3D glasses.
One thing I remember about 1993 is a lot of buildings had big red noses that looked like splatted tomatoes put on the front of them, there was one near me which had it up for a couple of years afterwards.
I still have a 1999 red nose in a drawer as well, the sqeuaky one. I had a 1997 fluffy one at some point too, but that's long gone missing.