The Comic Relief Timeline

Richard Curtis and Jane Tewson form "The Comic Relief Committee", which includes Rowan Atkinson, Griff Rhys Jones, Rik Mayall, Mel Smith and more. They begin to mobilise support

BT has supported us from day one, making them a huge part of our success.  They provide the telephony, call centres, network management and volunteers that enable us to take millions of pounds of donations.

Comic Relief organises three sellout comedy nights at The Shaftsbury Theatre. Coupled with subsequent LP, cassette and video sales, the performances raise more than £300,000 to help fight UK and world poverty.

Comedians Hale and Pace unleash The Stonk, which tops the UK charts, lodges itself in the nation’s head and, most importantly, helps to raise a stonking amount of money.

Melvyn Bragg gives Postman Pat the South Bank Show treatment in a surreal turn of events. Meanwhile, a powerful film by the late Anthony Minghella, The Wall, brings disability discrimination to the fore of the nation’s attention.

Comic Relief and Age Concern stage three Grand Tea-Hee Dances for older people in Scarborough and Bognor Regis.

Sainsbury’s become one of our leading partners and have since gone on to sell almost 60m red noses, raise an astonishing £48m and set up the Fair Development Fund to help transform the lives of small producers worldwide.

Wine Relief is launched, a new initiative bringing the wine industry together raise money for Red Nose Day 1999. Such was its success it has been a part of every Red Nose Day since!

Superstar Robbie Williams asks Comic Relief to administer his Give It Sum fund to help tackle poverty in his old stomping ground, North Staffordshire.

Comic Relief joins forces with Jubilee 2000 to spread the Drop the Debt message and urges the online community to email the G7 world leaders in the run up to the July summit in Japan.

Red Nose Day 2001 says ‘Pants to Poverty’ and raises a colossal £55 million.

The first ever Sport Relief kicks off and the great British public prove they’re great sports by raising more than £14 million.

A hairy nose was all the rage back in 2003 when that year’s Red Nose Day raised a Big Hairy £61.6 million.

Red Nose Day 2005 sees Peter Kay and Tony Christie finding their way to Amarillo as people across the country find it in their hearts to raise £65 million.

Our 12th Red Nose Day lives up to its billing as The Big One and hauls in over £67 million. That’s bigger than big.

Comic Relief once again breaks new ground by working with the Department of Health to publish the first ever study into Elder Abuse – a study into the abuse and neglect of older people in the UK.

Sport Relief decides it’s time to make a weekend of it and raises £28 million over three days.

Jamie Oliver’s Red Nose Recipes book is published in support of Red Nose Day 2009. It features 12 of his favourite recipes to cook with friends. Jamie also encourages the public to “Cook something funny for money!”

BBC One broadcasts Comic Relief: The Fool's Guide, a documentary narrated by David Tennant that celebrates the first 21 years of Comic Relief.

TK Maxx sell a Red Nose Day T-shirt designed by Stella McCartney which flies off the shelves and raises a massive £3.3 million.

British Airways chooses Comic Relief as its global charity partner – the first partnership to work with Comic Relief that aims to raises money all year round.

For Sport Relief, Blue Peter’s Helen Skelton completes a world record-breaking six-week, 2,010-mile kayak down the Amazon River, whilst TV presenter Christine Bleakley waterskis the English Channel in 100 minutes.

David Walliams, Fearne Cotton, Miranda Hart, Russell Howard, Patrick Kielty, Jimmy Carr and Davina McCall complete a non-stop relay cycle ride from John O’Groats to Land's End for Sport Relief and raise over £1.3m!

Malaria No More UK and Comic Relief team up to raise awareness about malaria and provide crucial malaria-preventing nets to 600,000 households in Ghana.