Comic Relief: Skelmanthorpe actress Jodie Whittaker on board for BBC's Red Nose Day
The world is a scary place to be at the moment.
Thankfully, for three hours tomorrow, you will be able to throw off the shackles of everyday life, let your hair down and have a little bit of fun. Yes, it’s Comic Relief, or Red Nose Day, and the theme is something we Brits are rather good at – having a laugh at ourselves.
Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker, from Skelmanthorpe in West Yorkshire, is taking part and, on brand, shares an embarrassing moment of her own.
“Falling over as an adult has a particularly humiliating kind of feel to it,” she says.
"I've fallen over loads as a kid but I've only fallen over a few times as an adult and recently I did it with about a crowd of about 50 to 60 people watching at a under 15s cricket game in Yorkshire.
"There was a little child very close to my heart running out into the cricket pitch, so I decided to be a hero and run after them…but the grass was really wet. And so not only did I not grab onto them, I b ody slid where my feet went from under me and then took out the child, knocked them flying.
"The whole game had to stop while I had to pick myself and this person up and carry both of ourselves off the cricket pitch. I had a two-hour game to sit by and every time I walked past people they went, ‘that's that girl’. It was awful.”
Davina McCall is set to be among the hosts on the night at Salford’s MediaCityUK, alongside Joel Dommett, Katherine Ryan, Leeds-born Nick Mohammed and, in a Red Nose Day first, Catherine Tate, in the guise of her popular character Nan.
Look out too for Alison Hammond and Dermot O’Leary, who leave the This Morning studio to take part in a sketch called The Bank Job.
We’ll also find out how much money Greg James has raised during his third epic charity challenge, having completed five triathlons in five days in 2016 and, two years later, cycled and climbed Scafell Pike, Snowdon and Ben Nevis. This time he was taking part in a 1,000km tandem ride across the UK, from Weymouth to Edinburgh, during which he was joined by various special guests.
Radio DJ James had claimed that after two challenges, he was done with such things, but then decided, “why not make it a hat-trick?!”
“I absolutely love the theme of this year’s Red Nose Day – I couldn’t agree more that we all just need to have a good laugh, and why not let it be at our own expense?” says Celebrity Traitor and former rugby star Joe Marler, who has poked fun at his own he-man image by teaming up with former Lioness Jill Scott and RuPaul’s Drag Race veteran Tia Kofi to make a hilarious video.
“Never did I think a drag queen could make me look so bloomin’ gorgeous,” adds Marler of the experience. “So come on, do something daft with me and help raise lots of lovely money.
Comic Relief is on BBC One from 7pm tomorrow.