The Comic Relief charity was established in 1985, by the comedy scriptwriter Richard Curtis and the comedian Lenny Henry. Its first major fundraising event took place at the Shaftesbury Theatre, in London's West End, on 4 April 1986.
Wikipedia states that the first Red Nose Day was held on 8 February 1988, when "Lenny Henry went to Ethiopia and celebrated the very first Red Nose Day Telethon." Elsewhere on the same page however, it gives the date as Friday 5 February 1986 – three days earlier.
A second Red Nose Day was held in 1989, and it's been repeated in very odd–numbered year since then. Since 2002, the even–numbered years have seen similar events held by Sport Relief – a collaboration between Comic Relief and BBC Sport.
The first Red Nose Day raised approximately £15 million. The second event, in 1989, raised almost £27 million, but this amount wasn't beaten until 1997. The figures then increased each time, reaching a peak of £108.4 million in 2011, since when the totals have declined to just over £52 million in 2021.
© Haydn Thompson 2021