BBC Studios and Post Production supported Comic Relief, Do Something Funny For Money, with coverage across BBC One and BBC Two for a marathon 440 minutes, on Friday 13 March. The TV audience peaked with an enormous 12.7 million/51.9% share at 9pm and the event raised a record-breaking £57 million for charity.

Comic Relief transmitted live from BBC Studios and Post Production’s flagship HD studio, Studio One, with a Top of the Pops Special transmitted live in Studio Four, featuring Franz Ferdinand and Mercury Prize winners Elbow. The night also included charity versions of Mastermind and The Apprentice and comedy from Catherine Tate.

Before rehearsals could start, the Studios Turnaround team rigged over 450 lamps and built a huge set, including a sliding LED wall, in Studio One. 10 cameras were used in Studio One and 36 radio mics. 49 dressing rooms were occupied by some of the UK’s top talent, including Take That, Cheryl Cole, Annie Lennox and Oasis.

There was also a huge effort from the Post Production team, which generated several hours of VT material. From Rob Platt editing the launch trail with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, which went out in January, to Collo Caulton creating the clip show for the end of the night. In addition, Nick Peto edited a whole host of VTs including Mitchell and Webb and Armstrong and Miller sketches and the corporate ‘Thank Yous’, whilst Gerry Lindfield was responsible for carrying out the Totalizer graphics work in Post Production’s Smoke Suite. Duncan Bragg carried out the finishing for the England Team and Smithy from Gavin and Stacey sketch and Post Production Editor Pete Drinkwater even followed nine celebrities out to Africa to edit in the field as they climbed Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for Comic Relief.

Over 80 video inserts were played into the show from Post Production’s Stage Five operation, plus countless packages via EVS from the Studio One control room. Post Production’s live playout facility on the second floor, meant that the production team could playout directly from Avid into the EVS system if needs be, enabling last minute rapid turn-around editing. Regional coverage and packages were also linked in and the event was also covered by BBC News and Radio.

In addition, a production village was created for Richard Curtis on Studio One’s floor and Comic Relief’s multiplatform team set up camp in The Star Bar for a night of `Twittering!`

Comic Relief is staged every two years and last took place on 16 March 2007 when the main show, Comic Relief: The Big One, averaged 9.5 million viewers.

For further information, please contact:
Georgie Hollett, Head of Communications, BBC Studios and Post Production
Tel: +44 (0)20 8624 9495
Mobile : +44 (0) 783484 5612
Email : georgie.hollett@bbc.co.uk

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