Red Nose Day 2026: Comic Relief raises £30m

If you tired yourself out laughing last night for Comic Relief, you're absolutely not alone.

After a brilliant evening of comedy sketches, singing and dancing, it was announced they'd raised an incredible £30m.

People up and down the country have been wearing red noses and fundraising all week, including Radio 1's Greg James, whose epic tandem bike ride to Scotland raised more than £4m.

The evening featured a star-studded line up, with pop star Olivia Dean, Gladiator Sabre and Bake Off presenter Alison Hammond all being funny for money.

Comic Relief is a charity that raises money by making people laugh.

The money goes to people who are facing hard times in the UK and around the world.

It was started in 1985 and the very first Red Nose Day telethon was in 1988, which raised £15m and had more than 30 million people tuning in.

A telethon just means a longer than usual TV programme, which are usually used to generate money for charity.

There have been 21 since then, as sometimes Red Nose Day runs every two years rather than annually.

Lots of schools get involved on Red Nose Day, with children dressing up in red clothes and wearing the iconic red nose.

And people take on big challenges to get people to donate too.

BBC Radio 1's Greg James was one of them - he cycled 1,000km on a tandem bike through England, Wales, and Scotland, meeting huge names, like Prince William and Newsround's very own De-Graft Mensah on the way.

In the end, he raised more than £4m for Comic Relief.

He got quite emotional as he ended the final leg of his ride, saying to Radio 1's Jack Saunders: "It's been such a struggle at times but everyone has got me through it."

He continued: "The thing I'll remember the most is seeing the joy from everyone and pushing through the pain to get to that joy."

The programme had three hours of funny skits and music to add to all the fundraising that had been done throughout the week.

Bake Off presenter Alison Hammond was in a funny video where she pretended to try robbing a bank with Gladiator Sabre and Dermot O'Leary.

Music performances came from Calum Scott, who sang his hit version of Robyn's Dancing on My Own, while Blessing Offor performed his song, Somebody's Child.