Sport Relief
Sport Relief was a biennial charity event from Comic Relief, in association with BBC Sport, established in 2002.
It was the idea of Kevin Cahill, CBE, who had joined Comic Relief in 1991 to establish a new department as Director of Education and Communications and went on to become its creative director and CEO. Now joint Honorary Life President with Sir Lenny Henry, Cahill joined having created the Education Department at the National Theatre in London and been its first Head.
In 2021, Comic Relief announced that from 2022 it was changing from alternating Sport Relief and Red Nose Day campaigns to Red Nose Day becoming annual and Sport Relief evolving into a year-round brand. The annual Red Nose Day telethon would now take place at Dock10, MediaCityUK in Salford.
On television
Like Red Nose Day, historically the Sport Relief telethon show began after the six o'clock news, with the usual BBC One schedule suspended at 7pm in favour of a live programme, with a break at 10pm for the News. However, whilst the BBC News at Ten was aired on BBC One, Sport Relief continued on BBC Two, and then resumed on BBC One at 10:35pm, with each hour overseen by a different celebrity host team. All the celebrity talent who represent Comic Relief's campaigns agree to do so for no fee.Presenters
- Gary Lineker
- Paddy McGuinness
- Alex Scott
- Emma Willis
- Rylan Clark-Neal
- Oti Mabuse
- Tom Allen
- Maya Jama
- Jamie Theakston
- Clare Balding
- Ulrika Jonsson
- Gabby Logan
- Tess Daly
- Davina McCall
- Chris Evans
- Richard Hammond
- Claudia Winkleman
- Fearne Cotton
- James Corden
- Patrick Kielty
- Christine Bleakley
- David Walliams
- Dermot O'Leary
- Miranda Hart
- Ore Oduba
- Jack Whitehall
- Greg James
- Alesha Dixon
- Freddie Flintoff
Official singles
| Release Date | Title | Artists | Peak Position |
| 15 July 2002 | "Your Song" | Elton John Alessandro Safina | 4 |
| 12 July 2004 | "Some Girls" | Rachel Stevens | 2 |
| 17 July 2006 | "Don't Stop Me Now" "Please, Please" | McFly | 1 |
| 9 March 2008 | "Better in Time" "Footprints in the Sand" | Leona Lewis | 2 |
| 8 March 2010 | "Morning Sun" | Robbie Williams | 45 |
| 19 March 2012 | "Proud" | JLS | 6 |
| 16 March 2014 | "Word Up!" | Little Mix | 6 |
| 11 March 2016 | "Running" | James Bay | 60 |
History
2002 event
The first Sport Relief show was presented by Gary Lineker, Ulrika Jonsson, Jamie Theakston and Clare Balding and included Stephen Fry hosting a special edition of They Think It's a Question of Sport, John Inverdale and Suzi Perry resurrecting the classic 1970s series Superstars. The first ever bout of Celebrity Boxing when Bob Mortimer beat Les Dennis on points on Saturday 13 July 2002. The final total on the night was £10,072,068.Other items were Sport in the Square where cast members from EastEnders and Holby City/''Casualty took part in a series of sporting challenges, Runaround, with Johnny Vegas, music from Gareth Gates and Will Young and contributions from Nick Hancock, Patrick Kielty, Angus Deayton, Ronni Ancona, Alistair McGowan, Audley Harrison, Alec Stewart, Tanni Grey-Thompson and Sir Steve Redgrave.
One of the highlights of the campaign came at the end of the final of the Stella Artois tennis championship when there was a surprise additional match for Sport Relief between the Prime Minister, Tony Blair and Pat Cash against Ilie Năstase and Alistair McGowan. Blair and Cash won the specially reduced set 4–1. Tony Hawks was the courtside commentator and the game was shown live on Sunday Grandstand''.
2004 event
The second Sport Relief was on Saturday 10 July 2004. The main show was on BBC One from 19.00 to 00.30. The first half was presented by Gary Lineker and Gabby Logan and the second half by Jamie Theakston and Tess Daly.In the first half of the show, Cilla Black hosted a celebrity version of Inter-Channel Superstars where the BBC squad took on teams from ITV, Channel 4 and Five, the stars of Strictly Come Dancing performed a special routine to a re-mix of iconic BBC Sport theme tunes, Bruce Forsyth was on hand to present a cheque, Patrick Kielty was live in the studio to talk about the Indian railway project he had visited, Rachel Stevens performed the Sport Relief single "Some Girls", Dick and Dom introduced Ray Stubbs being swung from a crane into a giant ball of dung and Stephen Fry hosted another edition of A Question of Sport Relief.
While the News and Lottery were on BBC One, there was a brand new show on BBC Two, Stars in Fast Cars which featured Alan Davies, Jodie Kidd, Patrick Kielty, Jimmy Carr and Darren Jordon competing in a variety of car related races and stunts.
The second half of the main show was back on BBC One from 21.30 BC to 00.30. BC Angus Deayton looked at Sports Stars in adverts, Lionel Richie and Badly Drawn Boy performed live in the studio, Jon Culshaw unveiled his Wayne Rooney impersonation, and Paul Whitehouse's Ron Manager interrogated David Beckham about his texting technique. Eamonn Holmes was the host when Rugby took on Football with teams that included Dion Dublin, Lee Sharpe, Martin Offiah and Matt Dawson and in this year's Celebrity Boxing Ben Fogle beat Sid Owen. Colin Jackson, Sir Steve Redgrave and Arsène Wenger were amongst the sporting names who also appeared live on the show.
The show also included highlights of some of the Sport Relief Miles which had attracted 81,000 at giant and local events in all parts of the UK. Jo Brandy was on hand to represent them and talk about her experiences at the Brighton Mile.
Throughout the night, there were also a whole series of appeal films to show where the Sport Relief money had already been spent and where the need was greatest. They were made by BBC Bristol and included Nick Knowles in Africa, Patrick Kielty in India and Victoria Beckham in Peru.
The campaign itself involved 253 celebrities and raised £16 million. The final total on the night of the telethon was £11,078,359.
2006 event
The third Sport Relief took place on Saturday 15 July 2006 with a whole day of programming across the BBC that culminated in the main evening show on BBC One at 7pm. Gary Lineker, Chris Evans and Davina McCall were the hosts for the entire evening.Once again the programme came live from TC1 at Television Centre and featured its biggest line up of names to date.
The second half was back on BBC One from 22.30 to 01.00. It included golf legend Nick Faldo competing against Lineker and Evans in a comedy pitching competition on the roof of the studio where they had to get their balls into the mouths of giant cut outs of Bruce Forsyth and Jimmy Tarbuck, the second part of A Question of Sport Relief, Jon Culshaw's live performance as George W. Bush, Catherine Tate in a new football sketch as Joanie "Nan" Taylor from The Catherine Tate Show and Sir Steve Redgrave and Colin Jackson taking part in a live power pint competition. There was also the last ever edition of Footballer's Wives which had been transferred from ITV for the night and included a guest appearance by Graham Norton as Brendan Spunk, José González performed in the studio, several members of the Sport Relief Red Socks cricket team were there to talk about their tour to India, including Harry Judd, Nick Hancock, Nick Knowles, Jack Russell and Phil Tufnell whilst Derek Acorah starred in a new sketch based in the Match of the Day studio. The third Sport Relief Celebrity Boxing bout was won by Jack Osbourne who defeated the former S Club 7 singer Bradley McIntosh. It was presented by Mark Durden-Smith with Dave Spikey as ringmaster.
British pop band McFly covered the hit song "Don't Stop Me Now" originally by Queen as the official single for the event. It reached number one on the UK Singles Chart.
The final total raised during Sport Relief 2006 was £18 million.
2008 event
Sport Relief moved to March in 2008. BBC One's night of fundraising was held on Friday 14 March and the Sport Relief Miles took place all around the UK on Sunday 16 March. It was presented on stage by Richard Hammond, Gary Lineker & Davina McCall. Bruce Forsyth & Tess Daly presented Sport Relief Does Strictly Come Dancing. Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson & James May presented Top Ground Gear Force. Jimmy Carr presented A Question of Sport Relief with the team captains Sue Barker and Gary Lineker. Sir Alan Sugar presented Sport Relief Does the Apprentice. There were occasional appearances by Jonathan Ross, Jimmy Carr, Michael Parkinson, Patrick Kielty, Claudia Winkleman & Tess Daly.The BBC presented another version of Sport Relief Does the Apprentice with 10 celebrities. Also, new for this year, a special episode of Strictly Come Dancing was shown.
That year's Celebrity Boxing saw Ben Shephard of GMTV beat Lemar on judge's vote.
The final total raised on the television broadcast was £19,640,321. During the telethon, a mystery donor donated £5.5million to the charity.