Red Nose Day

The bi-annual marathon of mirth consummed 9 hours of my life into the wee hours and, as usual, the average laugh count per minute is less than an episode of The Chuckle Brothers. There were some highlights, notably Peter Kay's new video for Amarillo which has dozens of 70's and 80's TV stars looking well past their best - Geoffrey from Rainbow (which always scared me anyway) looking the freakiest. By the time it got to the Fame Academy "celebs" doing drunken karaoke though I was praying for the final total, which was all I cared about in the first place. It came in at just short of £40 million, on the night! A new record, and an astonishing acheivement considering the Tsunami relief drive was so full on not so long ago. Compassion, of course, is never in a limited supply and is never trite. The causes represented and the films that highlight them shown throughout the night are heartbreaking and quite rightly put everything else in stark perspective. It is annoying when the fourth office exec dressed as a nurse with fishnet stockings shakes their bucket at you, yes! But you just have to buy in to the event in any way you can, because it's worth it... Let's just hope the fellas in the sharp suits sort something out at the upcoming G8 summit, eh? (Not to be confused with G4 who have recently released a album of good songs murdered in an camp operatic way!) Kx