Comic Relief

Comic Relief is a British charity organisation. The BBC is one of the main supporters of Comic Relief and airs TV specials during Red Nose Day. A donation campaign is held every other March with the sale of variant Red Noses a key feature of the fundraising.

Comic Relief Comic (1991)

On 16 February 1991 Fleetway Publications for Comic Relief, an operating name of Charity Projects Ltd, published a Comic Relief comic, a sixty-page, full colour, multi-character, linked series of strips featuring too many characters to mention, by over fifty credited writers and artists.

The art for the Doctor Who pages was by John Ridgway and the overall plot was by Richard Curtis, Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison. (The script for these pages may have been by John Freeman, who is one of the credited writers and was editor of Doctor Who Magazine at this time.)

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  Comic Relief Comic cover

Doctor Who-related Red Nose Day broadcasts

• 1986 - Colin Baker appears in-character as the Sixth Doctor and urges people to donate to the famine crisis in Ethiopia.
• On 12 March 1999, the BBC aired an original Doctor Who story, The Curse of Fatal Death.
• On 16 March 2007, David Tennant and Catherine Tate appeared in a televised skit where Tate reprised one of her famous Catherine Tate Show characters, Lauren Cooper, while Tennant played Tate's new English teacher, a "Mr Logan." The segment included numerous Doctor Who in-jokes. For one, Lauren asked Mr Logan if he was the Doctor, to which Mr Logan responded, "Doctor Who?" to the cheers of not only the crowd but also the class. Also, after an argument between the two escalated, Lauren asked Mr Logan if he fancied Billie Piper - in response, after a long pause, Logan pulled a sonic screwdriver from his coat and transfigured Lauren into an action figure of Rose.

Ronnie Corbett and Elisabeth Sladen promoting Comic Relief and the special SJA episode.

• On 13 March 2009, From Raxacoricofallapatorius with Love, a mini-episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures guest-starring Ronny Corbett, was aired.
• On 18 March 2011, two mini episodes, entitled Space and Time were aired. They starred Matt Smith, as the Eleventh Doctor and Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill as Amy Pond and Rory Williams respectively.
• On 15 March 2013, Matt Smith appeared as the Doctor in a comedy sketch which combined elements of Doctor Who, Call the Midwife, and One Born Every Minute, alongside Pam Ferris and Jenny Agutter.
• The Doctor needs YOUR help! aired on 15 March 2019.
• 2020: The Movie aired on 19 March 2021. Jodie Whittaker appeared as the Doctor, alongside Mandip Gill as Yasmin Khan (aka another doctor).
• The 17 March 2023 Red Nose Day broadcast included two Doctor Who skits: Lenny Henry Regenerates into David Tennant saw Lenny Henry "regenerate" into the Fourteenth Doctor, while 2023: The Eurovision Audition Tapes featured a Dalek, voiced as ever by Nicholas Briggs, as one of a motley crew of Eurovision candidates.

External links

• Comic Relief website
• Red Nose Day website
• BBC website about Red Nose Day