The Attack of the Comic Tomatoes started earlier than ever as Ruby Wax dropped in on over 25 live broadcasts during the week to promote Red Nose Day. On Red Nose Day itself, Children's BBC with Andi Peters and Philippa Forrester was broadcast live from 'Hangar 17' being assisted by the likes of Ed the Duck, Rabies and Guy of Gisborne from 'Maid Marian and her Merry Men, and even ITV presenters such as Neil Buchanan, Gaz Top and Grotbags. In keeping with the tomato theme, there was a 'Dress as a Vegetable' competition for youngsters. At seven O'clock the actual Attack commenced with a bespectacled Lenny Henry wearing a shiny silver suit covered in tomato splats. The studio audience got to decide 'what happened next' in a special Red Nose edition of hospital drama "Casualty". During the increasingly silly episode doctors began talking as if they were on the original Star Trek, Kate O'Mara cameoed as a patient and Keith Chegwin plus Phil Collins as nurses. Then there was a spoof episode of Cilla Black's "Blind Date" featuring male contestants Rob the Carpenter (James Purefoy?) from London, Roddy the Student (Alan Cumming) from Edinburgh and Number three (Mr. Bean) from his Dressing Room. In this one off, Rowan Atkinson's Bean had more lines than in all his other appearances put together.
FAB DJ's Smashie and Nicie (Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse) took over the presenting tasks on this 'Chucklemongously Charitabulous Evening' as they called it. The pair of pop pickers presented a special "One Foot in the Grave" episode as well as a Celebrity Bohemian Rhapsody inspired by and featuring that scene from 'Waynes World', with just about everyone on British Television at the time joining in. Jonathan Ross presented the game show to end all game shows: "Game for a game". Starting of with 15 famous faces (including Stephen Fry, Prince Phillip from Spitting Image, Lisa Standsfield and Neil Kinnock's wife Glynis), Gordon the Gopher was the first to be eliminated in the 15 to 1 round. This was followed later in the evening by elimination rounds based on 'Family Fortune', 'The Krypton Factor' and finally 'Red Nose Mastermind'. Danny Baker managed to get the first and last questions right and as such won the coveted Red Nose Oscar, aka Toscar.
A "Not the 9'O Clock News" compilation was shown on BBC 2 to fill in during the actual Nine O'Clock news on Beeb the first and after the watershed the Attack continued with Griff Rhyss Jones partnered for the first and only time to a rather underwhelmed Angus Deayton, who also helmed the crossover quiz "Have I got a Question of Sport for You". This part of the show also included a report on celebrity Go-cart racing and Lenny Henry in an enormous fat suit as Barry White, singing a duet with Smurf sized Prince (also Lenny in pasty make-up). Ben Elton and a bunch of former alternative comedians returned with the "Last Ever Friday Night Live", with the return of Loudsamoney (Enfield again), Julian Clary live from down under (sounds a bit rude) and Newman and Badiel doing their 'History Today' bit form "The Mary Whitehouse Experience" once more. For the finale, Benji went back to the future and slipped into his his first ever 1986 sparkly suit to do the first routine he ever did on Friday Live.
For this Red Nose Day, 72 percent of the UK population took part and no less than 3.30700 people bought the nose to stick on their face. Heart wrenching documentaries by Joana Lumley in Eritrea, Tony Robinson In Uganda and Lenny Henry in war torn Somalia were shown in juxtaposition with silly stuff like "Secret audition rejects" (John Craven's news-round, Terry Wogan singing the Lumberjack song) and Stephen Fry quizzing famous people via stock footage from Wogan's chat-show. 'Stick it out', the last of the funny Red Nose singles was released by Right Said Fred. Not only did it feature some suitably naughty lyrics, it also featured a can full of British comedians ad libbing on it, including Bernard Cribbins, the man from whom Right Said Fred got their name. Of course the band itself was one big joke, and knew it too, with lead singer Richard Fairbrass wearing some kind of leather net as an outfit during the live performance. The later it got, the more disgusting and naughty the collection of comedy clips got (think Monty Python's the Meaning of Life). As Lenny, Griff and Jonathan said their good nights in the early hours of the day after, they introduced the first ever 'uncut' screening of 'This is Spinal Tap' on BBC1.
7 red tomato noses in your face.
