Sir Michael Palin among stars joining special No Such Thing As A Fish recording

Sir Michael Palin, Sue Perkins and Stephen Fry will be among the guests on a live-streamed one-off special of hit podcast No Such Thing As A Fish in aid of Comic Relief.

The event will mark Comic Relief’s 35th year and will host 35 guests for 35 minutes each, adding up to 1,225 minutes – more than 20 hours – of live broadcast.

Comic Relief co-founder Richard Curtis, Tim Minchin, Rhys Darby, Shappi Khorsandi, John Lloyd, Richard Osman, Ian Hislop, Eddie Izzard, Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Gemma Whelan are also on the guest list for the special from March 12 to 13.

No Such Thing As A Fish, produced and presented by the researchers behind the BBC Two panel game QI, is one of the most popular podcasts in the world, with an average of one million listeners per week.

Curtis said: “The QI team has really outdone themselves with this brilliant idea – 35 guests to mark 35 years of Comic Relief is an extraordinary feat to pull off.

“I’m nervous to be part of such a clever line-up and will spend the next week dusting off my Comic Relief trivia.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun and I hope will help raise lots of money for Red Nose Day along the way.

“I want to say a huge thanks to the QI team for their herculean efforts in bringing us all 20 hours of non-stop fund-raising entertainment.

“They have some amazing guests, and I am sure a ridiculous amount of interesting facts to enjoy from home.”

The No Such Thing As A Fish team added: “We’ve spent seven years messing around and only recording for an hour or two at a time.

“This year we are thrilled to be pushing ourselves to the absolute limit in the service of one of the best causes around. We aim to read out every fact in the world at least once.”

Donations made to Red Nose Day during the 20-hour podcast marathon will help tackle issues including homelessness, hunger, domestic abuse, and mental health problems in the UK and around the world.

Red Nose Day will take place on March 19.

Advertisement