[Andrew]

Now, I haven’t watched either telethon for years, but did they not try a rather radical ‘revamp’ of Comic Relief roughly six years ago, when they had a ‘comedy club’ feel and did it live from the O2 and it all went really badly?! So it’s not as though they haven’t tried different formats over recent years.

Weren’t the main reasons for it not working, firstly sound issues, where the ‘clubbers’ in the main part we’re talking amongst themselves, particularly when items were going on off the main stage in the wings, and secondly because Richard Osman did that ‘World cup of biscuits’ thing that worked ok as a bit of fun on Twitter but didn’t translate to TV

I’d welcome a change now though, if they carry on with the telethon, I don’t want to see standard BBC safe presenters standing on a stage in Salford reading autocue into VTs. This and Children in Need are so similar I’m surprised they don’t just have a single set with the lighting changing from red to yellow