The presenters of this year’s Comic Relief show kicked off the Red Nose Day special by sending their love to Zoe Ball after the broadcaster had to drop out at the last minute after testing positive for coronavirus.
The radio and TV presenter, 51, was due to be part of Friday night’s star-studded presenting line-up, alongside Sir Lenny Henry, David Tennant and Paddy McGuinness.
However, in a post to Twitter on Friday morning she said singer Alesha Dixon would be working a “double shift” to cover her absence.
At the beginning of the Red Nose Day broadcast on BBC One, Tennant said: “Before we go any further, you might notice we’re a player down tonight.
“Zoe Ball unfortunately got Covid and was forced to pull out of the show. We will miss you tonight Zoe, we are sending you loads of love.”
It was also announced during the broadcast that Tom Daley’s Hell Of A Homecoming challenge raised £1,027,111 for Comic Relief.
The Olympic gold medal-winning diver completed 290 miles of rowing, swimming, cycling and running last month in a gruelling four-day mission from London to his home town of Plymouth in Devon.
During the charity special, Daley admitted: “I literally could not walk for about two weeks, to the point where my husband had to carry me out of bed in the night to go for a wee. I literally could not move my legs.”
The show so far has seen comedian Jack Whitehall go head-to-head with England footballers Declan Rice and Mason Mount in a mini-golf challenge.
After completing the course, West Ham midfielder Rice came first, Mount second and Whitehall came in last, joking: “It’s not my sport, I’m better at polo.”
As a loser’s forfeit, lifelong Arsenal fan Whitehall had to post a photo on Instagram of him in a West Ham shirt.
Another special saw Tim Vine narrowly beat fellow comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean at a sheepherding competition in a special version of Countryfile’s One Man And His Dog competition.
After showing off their newfound sheepherding skills, it was announced that Vine had scored 67 while Pritchard-McLean received 65 points.
The Red Nose Day broadcast also experienced a technical fault early in the night which meant the show had to initially skip past its segment with a magician.
The audio from the previous segment with actors Eddie Redmayne and Jude Law replayed as the Mind Mangler from the Magic Goes Wrong theatre play took to the stage.
Presenters Dixon and McGuinness attempted to reintroduce the act before announcing it was a technical fault.
As the segment was reintroduced, McGuinness joked: “Remember before with live telly and it didn’t go right? Well, I’m told this is definitely going to right.”
Dixon added: “And if it doesn’t, don’t blame us.”
Jude Law and Eddie Redmayne went to meet some of our very special fundraisers 🤩
Schools have raised £33million for #RedNoseDay over the years. An INCREDIBLE amount. And we see what so many of you have been doing today. Thank you 🔴 https://t.co/HeP37rjRs1
— Comic Relief (@comicrelief) March 18, 2022
Ahead of the broadcast, TV presenter Joel Dommett and pop superstar Kylie Minogue also had to pull out of the event after positive Covid tests.
Minogue was due to appear in a sketch with the cast of BBC comedy Ghosts but said on Thursday night that she would be watching from home after catching the virus.
Comedian Dommett, who also hosts ITV’s The Masked Singer, was forced to pull out of presenting late-night show The Great Comic Relief Prizeathon alongside AJ Odudu after returning a positive test.
He will be replaced by TV star Vernon Kay.
The Comic Relief Prizeathon is scheduled to follow the BBC News At Ten and continue the Red Nose Day celebrations into the night, with live music, comedy sketches and prize draws.
The Red Nose Day Comic Relief TV special is on BBC One.