Sir Lenny Henry has said it feels “great” to be hosting Comic Relief for the final time, adding the show will “probably be the best night of my life”.
The actor and comedian, 65, who co-founded the charity in 1985 alongside Love Actually screenwriter Richard Curtis, has been hosting the BBC show Red Nose Day for almost four decades but this will be his final year.
He said he has only had one year off from the role, when he was starring in a stage production of Othello.
Asked how it feels to hand over the baton, Sir Lenny said: “It feels great. I love Comic Relief and I’ve been doing it for 39 years.
“I’m a life president for the charity and I’m still going to be supporting other Comic Relief and Red Nose Day projects throughout the year, like recruiting new talent, doing voiceovers etc. So I’ll still be around, just not onscreen.
“I think it is time to hand over the reins because there is an extraordinary new generation of talent and we need to give these people and their audiences access to what Comic Relief can do and how we can raise money together.”
Reflecting on some of his moments of hosting Red Nose Day’s night of TV since it began, he said: “There have been so many. There’s a massive archive of genuinely funny things that still stand up.
“I think Rik Mayall singing Do You Love Me on the very first documentary, which was a night of TV arena show and raised over a million pounds, was hilarious.
“Rik came on stage and at the time he was one of the most famous people in the country because of Young Ones and the audience loved him.
“Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders did sex talk which was hilarious and Eddie Izzard performing in front of a very tired audience was very funny. I also had to lift Ken Dodd away from the camera so that we didn’t crash into the news.
“Ken could never do three minutes, he had to do 25 minutes or an hour wherever he was performing so we had to literally pick him up and take him off the screen.
“There are a lot of funny moments from across the years on Red Nose Day, far too many to mention, and long may it continue.”
Sir Lenny said the show this year will be “chock-a-block full of content, all of your favourite presenters and loads of special surprises”.
He added: “It will probably be the best night of my life because it’s my last year hosting and I know there’s going to be loads of surprises.
“So, you have to tune in for that. Plus, all the incredible films that the brilliant team create and put so much hard work into. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”
Sir Lenny will be joined by Joel Dommett, Davina McCall, Paddy McGuiness, Romesh Ranganathan, David Tennant, Maya Jama and Rosie Ramsey in hosting the show this year.
The charity broadcast will include an audition process to find Sir Lenny’s replacement, the return of Alan Partridge with a very special guest on his regional radio show, the reunion of Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders and a spoof of hit reality show The Traitors, entitled The Traitors: The Movie.
The cast of Just For One Day, the Live Aid Musical, will perform a special medley and there will be live appearances from darts star Luke Littler and The Gladiators.
Red Nose Day returns to BBC One on March 15.