Red Nose Days 1980s

5 FEBRUARY 1988

The very first Red Nose Day was in 1988 and raised a whacking £15 million!

Top telly action (viewed by over 30 million) included the Young Ones on "University Challenge" and "Blackadder - the Cavalier Years". Mel Smith and Kim Wilde provided the sounds with the cracking tune "Rockin' around the Christmas Tree", which raised the massive amount of £76,610 for Comic Relief that year.

Red Nose Day 1989

10 MARCH 1989

Over 20 million people across the UK took part in 70,000 activities for Red Nose Day 1989 and raised £26.9 million.

A fantastic night of telly on the BBC featuring everyone funny from Lenny Henry to Billy Connolly, from Griff Rhys-Jones to the Cast of Neighbours, from Stavros to loadsamoney and including the, horrific premiere of .. Night of the Comic Dead - a terrifying tale of ordinary folk haunted by a disgusting array of Comic Ghouls from French &. Saunders to Frank Carson.

Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and Kathy Burke reached number 3 in the UK charts with their dead sophisticated "Lananeenoonoo" single (with a little help from Bananarama).

In all, an incredible £26.9m was raised.