‘We asked Billy Connolly to do 15 minutes. He said “I’ll do as long as I want”’: the sweary, shambolic all-nighter that became Comic Relief

Today it is a fundraising juggernaut, but when it was born 40 years ago this month, things were very different. Lenny Henry, Richard Curtis and more explain how they got the gang together for a good causeA near-the-knuckle Spitting Image skit involving the former prince Andrew. The Young Ones performing their chaotic single Living Doll with Cliff Richard. Kate Bush somehow being coaxed on to a stage to duet with Rowan Atkinson. It was 40 years ago this month that Comic Relief staged its inaugural event at London’s Shaftesbury theatre, and while today it is a fundraising juggernaut (the 2026 event, held last month, raised £30m for charity), its origin story remains delightfully scrappy and exploratory.In 1984, a year before Live Aid entirely recalibrated what a showbiz charity event could look like, there was a remarkable gathering of what was fast becoming the new British comedy elite at a tiny village in Hampshire. The location, Nether Wallop, was chosen seemingly on the basis of i