David Walliams faces 24-hour challenge for Comic Relief

After swimming the English Channel and Gibraltar Strait, and then taking part in a Land’s End to John O’Groats cycle relay, David Walliams is about to take part in yet another challenging test of endurance for charity – a non-stop 24 hour comedy panel show marathon. 24 Hour Panel People will see Walliams take part in a variety of popular shows from TV and radio for a whole day, sometimes as host and sometimes as team captain or panelist. We’re assured that he’ll be facing “some other surprising challenges” along the way too.

All the usual suspects will be included, from Have I Got News For You to 8 Out of 10 Cats, with Never Mind the Buzzcocks, They Think It’s All Over, Just a Minute, and Call My Bluff all involved, among many others. Sean Lock, Jason Manford and Leigh Francis have all been confirmed as taking part – no mention of David Mitchell yet, but he’s bound to turn up at some point, surely.

The whole thing will stream live on bbc.co.uk/rednoseday starting from midday on Saturday 5th March, with Walliams finally being able to get some well-deserved sleep after midday on the Sunday. It’ll then be chopped down into five 30-minute chunks and aired on BBC Three, with highlights also being liberally sprinkled throughout the big Red Nose Day telethon on BBC One on the 18th of March.

While 24 hours of panel shows might sound like an average day’s schedule on Dave, sponsored comedy is a great fundraising idea for Comic Relief and it promises to be an entertaining day… and night, and morning. At the very least, it’ll be interesting to see what happens as the fatigue starts to kick in on Sunday morning – probably best to schedule in Celebrity Juice at that point and not QI.

If you want, you can turn up to Television Centre and cheer him on yourself by applying for free audience tickets. Don’t worry, you won’t have to stay in your seat for the entire day – instead you can choose a two-hour segment (anyone fancy the 3:30-5:30am slot?). Have a look at sroaudiences.com for full details.