Today is Friday 19 March 2021 - Red Nose Day 2021. Yes everyone, another odd-numbered year means that two-yearly fundraising extravaganza for Comic Relief has come around again. Quite frankly though, as far as I'm concerned, today looks set to be just another plain, ordinary Friday. For starters, I'm not going to do anything silly with my hair or face, which is what people have been encouraged to do on Red Nose Day in past years. I've bought myself two Red Nose Day 2021 T-shirts from TK Maxx website (one grey Buzz T-shirt and one white Jessie T-shirt). I'm wearing my white Jessie T-shirt with pride today.
The Red Nose Day TV coverage looks a bit different this year to previous years. The main show will be on BBC One this evening from 19:00 to 22:00. After the news, The Great Comic Relief Prizeathon is on BBC One from 22:45 to 23:45. It's unclear whether that's a continuation of the main show, or a standalone show connected with Comic Relief 2021. After that, BBC One will be showing Gordon Ramsay's Bank Balance at 23:45, followed by Billy Monger's Big Red Nose Day Challenge from 00:30 to 01:30. In addition, BBC Two is showing Later - with Jools Holland for Comic Relief from 22:00 to 22:45, presumably intended as a filler against the news. All in all, an interesting looking line-up this evening. However this has left me wondering if the "proper" Red Nose Day show, with general entertainment, appeal films, money raised by Sainsbury's, TK Maxx, etc, running totals and so on is just from 19:00 to 22:00. For some mysterious reason, the three separate shows from 22:45 onwards (the last two of which I've noticed are marked as repeats in the TV listing I've seen) look like a replacement for having a continuous live "part two" show from 22:45 to well after midnight.
The question is, will any of tonight's line-up be worth watching? Each odd-numbered year from 2003 to 2015 I watched it off-air until late (usually midnight) and the rest on video next day. Looking back, I don't know how I tolerated sitting through them, because each time I thought the shows were predominantly a load of utter stupidity and tommyrot. Many of the sketches over the years have been terrible (e.g. Simon Cowell's wedding in 2013, Mr. Bean at the funeral in 2015). Unlike Children in Need TV shows in November, the Red Nose Day TV shows over the years featured very few pop songs (however in 2009 there was a Top of the Pops Red Nose Day special on BBC Two whilst the 10 o'clock News was on BBC One). I didn't bother watching any part of the Red Nose Day TV Shows in 2017 and 2019 as I thought the entertainment would be just as bad, if not worse.
For those of you who are fundraising for Red Nose Day 2021 today (within current lockdown rules / guidelines), happy fundraising.