Moyles marathon raises £2.4m

Radio 1 colleague Fearne Cotton’s promise to broadcast in swimsuit if target was reached saw late surge in donations For 23 years now Britons have been lying in baths of baked beans, shaving their heads and donning amusing outfits, all to raise cash for Comic Relief. But now they know the formula to hoover up £2.4m for the charity in a matter of hours: two dishevelled, baggy-eyed men and a blond woman in a tight swimsuit. The hefty sum was raised in the runup to Friday evening’s annual BBC1 Red Nose Day celeb-athon by the DJ Chris Moyles, with some important last-minute help from his Radio 1 colleague Fearne Cotton. Moyles, along with longstanding sidekick Dave Vitty, more popularly known as “Comedy Dave”, had pledged to collect money by staying on air for a continuous, world record-breaking 50 hours, beginning on Wednesday morning. The steady stream of donations became a flood after Cotton announced that she would broadcast part of her regular mid-morning show – which features a live webcam feed – in a swimming costume if the £2m mark was reached. And reached it was, while the Radio 1 website crashed under the weight of would-be gawpers. Moyles, who lasted 52 hours, later gave special thanks to “that last rush of dirty old men” in helping to beat the target as he was presented with a certificate marking the record. “The end result of this silly, silly show was Fearne Cotton in a swimsuit. Oh and Comic Relief got some money,” Moyles added. The long-established charity event raised more than £82m for charities in the UK and Africa last year. Attempting to beat the 2010 target, Friday’s BBC1 show featured special celebrity-studded editions of Doctor Who, Downton Abbey, Outnumbered and MasterChef. Musical interludes included Take That along with a one-off tribute act, Fake That, comprising James Corden, John Bishop, David Walliams, Catherine Tate and Alan Carr. Chris Moyles Radio Radio 1 BBC Radio industry Television Comic Relief Charities Peter Walker guardian.co.uk

Posted by on March 18, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.