Sport Relief is a biennial charity event from Comic Relief, in association with BBC Sport, which brings together the worlds of sport and entertainment to raise money to help vulnerable people in both the UK and the world's poorest countries. At the heart of the campaign is the Sport Relief Mile.
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In 2002, Comic Relief and BBC Sport teamed up to create a new initiative, aiming to unite the sporting community and culminate in a night of sport, entertainment and fundraising on BBC One. The idea initially came from Peter Salmon, the then Director of Sport at the BBC, and Kevin Cahill, the Chief Executive of Comic Relief. The campaign deliberately alternates with Red Nose Day, Comic Relief's flagship event.
The first Sport Relief show was presented by Gary Lineker, Ulrika Jonsson, Jamie Theakston and Clare Balding and included Stephen Fry hosting a special edition of They Think it's a Question of Sport, John Inverdale and Suzi Perry resurrecting the classic 1970s series Superstars and the first ever bout of Celebrity Boxing when Bob Mortimer beat Les Dennis.
Other items were Sport in the Square where cast members from EastEnders and Holby City/Casualty took part in a series of sporting challenges, Runaround, with Johnny Vegas, music from Gareth Gates and Will Young and contributions from Nick Hancock, Patrick Kielty, Angus Deayton, Ronni Ancona, Alistair McGowan, Audley Harrison, Alec Stewart, Tanni Grey-Thompson and Sir Steve Redgrave. One of the highlights of the campaign came at the end of the final of the Stella Artois tennis championship when there was a surprise additional match for Sport Relief between the Prime Minister, Tony Blair and Pat Cash against Ilie Năstase and Alistair McGowan. Blair and Cash won the specially reduced set 4-1. Tony Hawks was the courtside commentator and the game was shown live on Sunday Grandstand.
The second Sport Relief was on Saturday 10 July 2004. the main show was on BBC One from 19.00 - 00.30. The first half was presented by Gary Lineker and Gaby Logan and the second half by Jamie Theakston and Tess Daly.
In the first half of the show (19.00 - 21.00) Cilla Black hosted a celebrity version of Inter-Channel Superstars where the BBC squad took on teams from ITV, Channel 4 and Five, the stars of Strictly Come Dancing performed a special routine to a re-mix of iconic BBC Sport theme tunes, Bruce Forsyth was on hand to present a cheque, Patrick Kielty was live in the studio to talk about the Indian railway project he had visited, Rachel Stevens performed the Sport Relief single, Some Girls, Dick and Dom introduced Ray Stubbs being swung from a crane into a giant ball of dung and Stephen Fry hosted another edition of A Question of Sport Relief.
While the News and Lottery were on BBC One, there was a brand new show on BBC Two, Stars in Fast Cars which featured Alan Davies, Jodie Kidd, Patrick Kielty, Jimmy Carr and Darren Jordon competing in a variety of car related races and stunts.
The second half of the main show was back on BBC One from 21.30 to 00.30. Angus Deayton looked at Sports Stars in adverts, Lionel Richie and Badly Drawn Boy performed live in the studio, Jon Culshaw unveiled his Wayne Rooney impersonation, and Paul Whitehouse's Ron Manager interrogated David Beckham about his texting technique. Eamonn Holmes was the host when Rugby took on Football with teams that included Dion Dublin, Lee Sharpe, Martin Offiah and Matt Dawson and in this year's Celebrity Boxing Ben Fogle beat Sid Owen. Colin Jackson, Sir Steve Redgrave and Arsène Wenger were amongst the sporting names who also appeared live on the show.
The show also included highlights of some of the Sport Relief Miles which had attracted 81,000 at giant and local events in all parts of the UK. Jo Brand was on hand to represent them and talk about her experiences at the Brighton Mile.
Throughout the night there were also a whole series of appeal films to show where the Sport Relief money had already been spent and where the need was greatest. They were made by BBC Bristol and included Nick Knowles in Africa, Patrick Kielty in India and Victoria Beckham in Peru.
The campaign itself involved 253 celebrities and raised £16 million.
The third Sport Relief took place on Saturday 15 July 2006 with a whole day of programming across the BBC that culminated in the main evening show on BBC One at 7pm. Gary Lineker, Chris Evans and Davina McCall were the hosts for the entire evening.
Once again the programme came live from TC1 at Television Centre and featured its biggest line up of names to date.
The second half was back on BBC One from 22.30 to 01.00. It included golf legend Nick Faldo competing against Lineker and Evans in a comedy pitching competition on the roof of the studio where they had to get their balls into the mouths of giant cut outs of Bruce Forsyth and Jimmy Tarbuck, the second part of A Question of Sport Relief, Jon Culshaw's live performance as George W. Bush, Catherine Tate in a new football sketch as "Nan" from The Catherine Tate Show and Sir Steve Redgrave and Colin Jackson taking part in a live power pint competition. There was also the last ever edition of Footballer's Wives which had been transferred from ITV for the night and included a guest appearance by Graham Norton, Jose Gonzales performed in the studio, several members of the Sport Relief Red Socks cricket team were there to talk about their tour to India, including Harry Judd, Nick Hancock, Nick Knowles, Jack Russell and Phil Tufnell whilst Derek Acorah starred in a new sketch based in the Match of the Day studio. The third Sport Relief Celebrity Boxing bout was won by Jack Osbourne who defeated the formed S Club 7 singer Bradley McIntosh. It was presented by Mark Durden-Smith with Dave Spikey as ringmaster.
British pop band McFly covered the hit song "Don't Stop Me Now" originally by Queen as the official single for the event. It reached Number 1 in the UK singles chart.
Sport Relief moved to March in 2008. BBC One's night of fundraising was held on Friday 14 March and the Sport Relief Miles took place all around the UK on Sunday 16 March. It was presented on stage by Richard Hammond, Gary Lineker & Davina McCall. Bruce Forsyth & Tess Daly presented Sport Relief Does Strictly Come Dancing. Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson & James May presented Top Ground Gear Force. Jimmy Carr presented A Question Of Sport Relief with the team captains Sue Barker and Gary Lineker. Sir Alan Sugar presented Sport Relief Does The Apprentice. There were occasional appearances by Jonathan Ross, Jimmy Carr, Sir Michael Parkinson, Patrick Kielty, Claudia Winkleman & Tess Daly
The BBC presented another version of Sport Relief Does The Apprentice with 10 celebrities. Also, new for this year, a special episode of Strictly Come Dancing was shown.
That year's Celebrity Boxing saw Ben Shephard of GMTV beat Lemar on judge's vote.
The final total raised on the television broadcast was £19,640,321. During the telethon, a mystery donor donated £5.5million to the charity.[1]
Sport Relief was broadcast on 19–21 March 2010. The appeal show was aired as usual on BBC One and BBC Two on 19 March from 19:00 - 01:30. A special of Strictly Come Dancing (filmed on The Live Tour on Saturday 6 February) aired as well as Let's Dance for Sport Relief.
On CBBC there were special shows dedicated to Sport Relief including a special edition of Dani's House and Paddy McGuiness hosted a new series, Sport Relief does We are the Champions.
The total raised on the night of broadcast was £31,633,091.
James Corden also performed various comedy sketches with British Athletes like Andy Murray (tennis), David Beckham (football) and Tom Daley (diving).
Lawrence Dallaglio embarked on a gruelling cycle from Rome to Edinburgh during the RBS 6 Nations Championship to raise money for Sport Relief and the Dallaglio Foundation. The Dallaglio Cycle Slam took place over the course of a month, seeing a team cycling through all of the RBS 6 Nations countries, taking in each of the international rugby stadia along the way. The aim was to raise £1million and £1.14 million was raised with 50% going to Sport Relief 2010.
Next year's appeal will run from 23rd-25th of March 2012, with the television show airing on the 23rd. The BT Sport Relief Challenges "Walliams VS. The Thames" saw David Walliams swim approximately 140 miles (230 km) around the Thames over 8 days in September 2011; it also raised over 1 million pounds. Another season of Let's Dance For Sport Relief will run upto the telethon weekend. Helen Skelton will also perform another stunt for this years appeal.
The Sport Relief Mile was created to give the campaign a focus with an event that was open to anyone to run, walk, jog, wheel, bounce or crawl, regardless of ability or age. It was also designed to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sir Roger Bannister's first sub-four minute mile.
81,000 people took part in the first Sport Relief Mile, sponsored by Fitness First, in 2004. Sainsbury's is now the official sponsor of the Mile.
In 2006 more than 423,000 people took part in the Sport Relief Mile, making it one of the biggest mass participation events in history. The Sport Relief Mile Show on BBC1 on the morning of Saturday July 15 was presented by John Inverdale and Colin Jackson and drew an audience of almost a million with an 18% share.
Among the 20,000 milers who took part at London's Embankment were Lord Coe, Dame Kelly Holmes, Sportacus, McFly, Michael Watson, Tessa Sanderson, G4, Jamie Oliver and Sadie Frost.
Televised Miles were also held in Brighton, Southampton, Plymouth, Bristol, Cardiff, Belfast, Manchester, Glasgow, Newcastle/Gateshead, Leeds, Hull, Nottingham, Birmingham and Ipswich.
Children from Amsterdam, The Netherlands (The British School of Amsterdam) took part in 2008 and again in 2010.
In 2010 a large amount of schools in Britain did a Sport Relief mile.
The first Sport Relief single in 2002 was Your Song by Elton John and Alessandro Safina, reaching number 4 in the chart. In 2004 "Some Girls" by Rachel Stevens made it to number 2 and in 2006, the third ever Sport Relief single, "Don't Stop Me Now"/"Please, Please" by McFly, was released. It reached Number 1 for one week, selling 36,496 units (week ending 29 July 2006). In 2008 the Sport Relief single was by Leona Lewis with her single "Footprints in the Sand", though it was officially released as a double a-side with "Better in Time".[2] In 2010 the single is "Morning Sun", sung by Robbie Williams. The Sport Relief single for this year was going to be When We Were Younger by You Me at Six, however You Me at Six confirmed on their website that "Reckless" will be the official Sport Relief single of 2012, with a download release date of March 18th and UK CD date of March 19th, and the song will have a music video to be filmed in January, with the music video release in February.
| Release Date | Title | Artists | Peak Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 2002 | "Your Song" | Elton John and Alessandro Safina | 4 |
| July 2004 | "Some Girls" | Rachel Stevens | 2 |
| July 2006 | "Don't Stop Me Now"/"Please, Please" | McFly | 1 |
| March 2008 | "Better In Time"/"Footprints in the Sand" | Leona Lewis | 2 |
| March 2010 | "Morning Sun"[3] | Robbie Williams | 45 |
| March 2012 | Reckless | You Me at Six |
Sport Relief provides material for the BBC and is part of a UK registered charity 326568 called Charity Projects.[4]
In 2009 the charity awarded a total of £36m (£m = million) in grants with net assets of £120m, of which £97m is in fixed asset investments such as funds in equities and bonds. The charity reported staff costs of £6m plus agency staff costs of £6m. The charity will be also be receiving a UK government grant of £5m in 2010.
In 2006 David Walliams swam the English Channel to raise money for Sport Relief. He trained for 9 months with Professor Greg Whyte of the English Institute for Sport and was also helped by the "King of the Channel", Mike Read, chairman of the Channel Swimming Association. Walliams' feat was documented for a BBC programme called Little Britain's Big Swim. David also swam the Gibraltar Strait for the 2008 campaign.
In 2006, the BBC staged a celebrity elimination showjumping competition called Only Fools on Horses, which raised over £250,000.
On 26 July 2009, Eddie Izzard began running a series of 43 marathons over 51 days for Sport Relief. On 15 September, Eddie arrived in Trafalgar Square, marking the end of his 43rd marathon in only 51 days. He ran 42.195 kilometres (26.219 mi) a day, 6 days a week for 7 weeks straight, covering 1,166 miles (1,876 km) across the UK. Eddie raised over £1,152,510 for Sport Relief.[5]