Fury to try his hand at comedy

Irish heavyweight Tyson Fury and four  top sporting personalities are teaming up with five of the country’s top comedians  to try their hand at one of the hardest games there is: stand-up comedy! And it’s all in the name of Sport Relief…

Hosted by Claudia Winkleman, Stand Up For Sport Relief will see sports stars including former unbeaten British and Commonwealth Heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, Ashes winning cricketer Michael Vaughan, World Cup winning rugby player Ben Cohen and BBC Sports Broadcaster , former Commonwealth gymnast Gabby Logan all perform a three minute comedy set based on their sporting life. The daunting gig will not only be in front of a live audience at one of the country’s top comedy venues but it will also air on BBC Three in the build up to Sport Relief. And that’s not all…

To add to the pressure, and to help them along the way, each sports star will be paired with one of the country’s top stand-up comedians. Patrick Kielty, Jason Manford, Andi Osho, Chris Ramsey and Daniel Sloss will mentor one personality each, helping them with inspiration for the set, experimenting with tried and tested stand up techniques and honing their performance for the big night.

On the night itself, the mentors will warm up the audience for the sporting acts and perform first, before the sports personalities take to the stage for their first ever set, supported all the way by the host Claudia Winkleman and the eager crowd.

Claudia Winkleman said: “I am incredibly proud to be part of Stand Up for Sport Relief. It sounds both exciting and terrifying which is win win. I’ll try and support the brave sportsmen and women who are going to be comics for one night as much as possible”

 

Michael Vaughan said: “I used to play cricket in front of 20,000 people but the thought of making 500 people laugh is terrifying… And having spent a day with my comedian, I’ve realised just how unfunny I am.”

 

There will also be two moving films showing the more serious side of Sport Relief, and how the money raised helps people living incredibly tough lives both at home in the UK and across the world’s poorest countries.

 

The event will be filmed at the Bloomsbury Theatre and will air on BBC Three in a specially recorded programme in the build up to Sport Relief.

 

Further names of the sports people and comedians taking part will be announced shortly.

The series was commissioned by Zai Bennett, Controller, BBC Three and Sean Hancock, Executive Producer, BBC Entertainment Commissioning.  The programme is being made by BBC In-House Entertainment. The Series Producer is  Jim Hickey and the executive producer is Derek McLean.

 

Visit www.sportrelief.com to find out more.