{"id":839982,"date":"2026-03-21T05:13:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T05:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/839982\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T05:13:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T05:13:25","slug":"comic-relief-viewers-fume-this-is-awful-as-catherine-tate-sparks-fury","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/839982\/","title":{"rendered":"Comic Relief viewers fume ‘this is awful’ as Catherine Tate sparks fury"},"content":{"rendered":"

BBC viewers were less then impressed with the opening of Comic Relief on Friday night as one familiar face returned to screens.<\/p>\n

Tianna Corbin<\/strong> TV Reporter<\/p>\n

19:32, 20 Mar 2026<\/p>\n

\"Catherine<\/p>\n

Catherine Tate reprised her role as Nan for Comic Relief this year(Image: BBC)<\/p>\n

It\u2019s that time of year once again when well-known faces take part in tough challenges and hilarious sketches to raise money as part of Comic Relief.<\/a><\/p>\n

On Friday evening (March 20) BBC<\/a> viewers tuned in to watch Davina McCall oversee the fundraising night alongside Joel Dommett.<\/p>\n

The three-hour long show kickstarted with a special message from Sir Lenny Henry,<\/a> who stepped down from his presenting duties for Comic Relief in 2023 after 39 years.<\/p>\n

However, once his message ended people welcomed Catherine Tate to the stage as one of her comedic personas, Nan. Laughing as she walked on, the comedian said: “Hello sweethearts! I’ve come up to see you in Salford for Red Nose Day 2026 if you don’t mind!<\/p>\n

\"Catherine<\/p>\n

Catherine Tate reprised her role as Nan for Comic Relief this year(Image: BBC)<\/p>\n

“Well, they’ve asked me to host and I thought, well seeing as I haven’t brought a TV licence in 15 years it’s about time I gave something back.<\/p>\n

“So here we are and we’re going to have a right old time of it tonight. We’ve got celebrities galore. You’re right to cheer, we’ve got live music and a couple of other things. I’m sure they thought it through.”<\/p>\n

As the audience laughed and applauded Catherine in character, she told the crowd she loved the fact the TV show was live as a spotlight appeared on her.<\/p>\n

She then began belting out the song Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen before being joined onstage with backing dancers, who were all dressed as elderly women.<\/p>\n

\"Catherine<\/p>\n

Comic Relief viewers weer less than impressed by the performance(Image: BBC)<\/p>\n

However, it looked as though not everyone watching was blown away by the performance as many people took to social media to share their thoughts.<\/p>\n

One person said: “#comicrelief Please stop her.” Another wrote: “Catherine Tate presenting as Nan, no offence but I\u2019m not feeling it. #ComicRelief<\/p>\n

Someone else shared: “Well #comicrelief got off to a c**p start. Catherine Tate singing. This is awful.” As another wrote: “Nan is annoying me on Red Nose Day already!! Just want presenters not a character!”<\/p>\n

\"Comic<\/p>\n

Davina and Joel joined Catherine in character after her performance on the BBC show(Image: BBC)<\/p>\n

Although some people enjoyed the performance as one person said: “Great to see Catherine Tate reprise the Palladium sketch of Don’t Stop Me Now for #comicrelief”<\/p>\n

When she finished, Davina McCall and Joel Dommett joined Catherine on stage as they asked how she was feeling.<\/p>\n

She replied: “Oh, I’m alright but I don’t know if you noticed one of them nice young men put his hand right up my canary! An unexpected perk!”<\/p>\n

Comic Relief: Funny For Money is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BBC viewers were less then impressed with the opening of Comic Relief on Friday night as one familiar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5010],"tags":[192,748,92215,4884,16,15,1764],"class_list":["post-839982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wales","tag-bbc","tag-britain","tag-comic-relief","tag-great-britain","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-wales"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116265458671685718","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}