Comic Relief Songs of Praise

It's 25 years since the very first Red Nose Day,

and just under two weeks till this year's Comic Relief.

Millions of pounds have been raised for good causes over the years,

and here on Songs Of Praise, we're launching our very own

fundraising challenge, involving a few famous faces.

Is that comedian Tim Vine?

Yes, this week, we're seeing the life-changing results of

Comic Relief's work with charities here at home and in Africa.

Bake-Off star Mary Berry is on a mission in Wolverhampton,

and we've plenty of great hymns from around the UK.

Cliff Richard!

For the last quarter of a century,

Comic Relief has been urging us to be cheerful givers.

# Living doll

# Living doll! #

Juliet, Juliet!

It all began with a comedy show in a London theatre.

And, believe it or not,

the first Red Nose Day hit our screens back in 1988.

Since then, the organisation has raised £800 million.

The vision of Comic Relief is a just world, free from poverty.

We're a conduit for that money,

we exist to make the work of other organisations possible,

and we work with people both of faith and people of no faith, as well.

This is, of course, the comedian, Tim Vine. Good to see you.

Lovely to see you, Aled.

He's going to help us with the challenge this week.

I'll tell you what, why don't you do the next bit?

Great idea. Hello, viewers.

If you'd like to put a hand on the screen, close your eyes

-and send us 100. That's not us, is it?

-No.

-No, right.

In that case, here's a hymn taken from that wonderful collection,

Ancient And Earlier.

And it's a real toe-tapper.

Yes, I'm tapping my toe already.

That went well.

Yes, it did. Can I have your job?

-No.

-Only asking.

Thanks to the Great British Bake-Off,

our next guest has got the nation back into the kitchen.

Today, Mary Berry is putting her faith into practice,

on a mission for Comic Relief.

Every weekday,

the Good Shepherd Project offers free food to anyone who needs it.

As a Christian, we've always been taught,

and I've been brought up to look after our neighbours.

I'm going to be very much part of what's happening today.

I'm going to see what they're cooking,

and I want to talk to the people who are preparing it.

They've chosen to help, and I want to know what's behind it.

It isn't what you call a wishy-washy soup. It's full of real goodness.

It's lovely.

There is a sizeable portion of people who have probably very little,

because of the poverty of our times, and some of them may be

dependent on the food to feed the family for what they receive from us.

To me, serving the poor, providing for the poor,

Comic Relief do the very same thing,

because when people support Comic Relief

and they support an agency like this,

they really are feeding the poor, and to me, you have to look at that.

The broad picture is quite an amazing one.

One o'clock, doors open.

So what we do is we go around to each of the service users.

Whoever's got an empty bowl, we just fill it up.

Those who have had already and want seconds, we just top them up.

Hello. This is chicken soup today. Nice and full?

Mary Berry is a cook.

Hello.

Are you not working at the moment?

No, I'm not.

I lost my job last January.

And what do you think of it down here?

-I think it's good.

-Do you?

Putting it mildly.

-Do you find it quite rewarding?

-Yes.

It makes me very grateful for what I've got.

-Yes.

-I bet it does.

Puts your life in perspective, as well.

The best bit about it is that we try to make a small difference

to their lives, to those that are homeless,

to those that haven't got much, just to see them fed, really.

And a special treat for today, my own apple cake for pudding.

The staff here have prepared it. I just hope everybody likes it.

Oh, you're having my pudding!

Yes.

-What do you think of it, then?

-It's really nice.

-Is it?

-Yes.

Like what my mum used to make when I was about four years of age.

How long have you been coming here?

On and off for about four or five years.

'Brother Stephen is a whirlwind. He never keeps still.'

Why did you choose to do this?

I find the God I worship in the people I serve,

and I feel that this is an expression of my faith experience,

and it's a journey that I share with all sorts of different people.

Help yourself.

There have been over 100 people coming through the doors

and enjoying a really good, nutritious lunch.

They come here for friendship, they come here for warmth,

they don't have jobs, some of them have lost their families,

and some of them are sleeping rough.

Smile!

I'm taller than him!

I'm so thrilled,

I'm so proud that the money from Comic Relief is being used

so wisely by people who are serving them through their Christian faith.

Oh, it suits you!

As well as concerns at home, a major driving force

behind the founding of Comic Relief was African famine and unrest.

That's why, 25 years on, it still gives just over half

of all money raised by Red Nose Day to groups working across Africa.

# Baby Jesus, baby Jesus. #

Charity leader Mary Mosinghi

has very personal reasons for being involved.

# You're my saviour You're my saviour

# Every day, every day. #

Around the mid-'80s, there was a lot of instability in Uganda,

and my father, cousins and my uncle were murdered as a result of that.

I came here to find some peace,

and also to further my education and my teaching career.

It was here in the UK Mary was able to set up her charity Africare,

to help communities back in her homeland struggling to cope

with the effects of HIV and AIDS.

I went back to Uganda in 1995, and I visited this village,

and this frail-looking woman came up to me and told me,

"Please help us, we're dying."

They'd lost their sons, their husbands,

and they were looking after very young children,

and we used to question, I did, and a number of my friends did,

"Where is God in all this?"

But I think our faith, or my faith was strong, and that didn't

divert me from trying to understand how God is looking at all this,

and ways in which we can address HIV and AIDS and its impact.

'Eight years on, and with the support of Comic Relief,

'Mary's charity is helping villagers to face the future with hope.'

And how do you feel when you see the good work that's happening there?

I feel very honoured. I also feel very humbled.

Sometimes I get really excited, because ten years ago, people

were crossing the road because they didn't want to be seen.

Now they're walking in and saying, "I'm HIV positive, I need help."

You see children playing football, netball.

These are children of families affected by HIV and AIDS,

which they wouldn't have done ten years ago.

Is faith important out there?

When someone is unwell,

the first person they go to is the faith leader.

If they're told, "Just pray and you'll get better,"

that's what they'll do.

But I believe that faith, being a Christian,

and seeing a doctor can get you better, the three can get you well,

so it's around relaying that message to people.

Through Comic Relief,

we've been able to get these funds to work

with our partners in Uganda to make a difference in the lives

of very poor people in society, and we do thank Comic Relief,

and we thank God for giving us this opportunity.

So, Tim, why are we here with the marvellous Songs Of Praise

senior school choir of the year?

I can tell you exactly why we're here, Aled.

We're here because we want you people at home to raise

as much money as you can for Comic Relief and Red Nose Day.

-Fantastic. We're going to have a hymnathon.

-What on earth's that?

Well, it's when a congregation sings hymns

and raises money at the same time.

-They already do that. It's called a collection.

-Oh, yeah.

-I don't like the collection.

-Why?

-I'm afraid of change.

On that note, the choir here at St Georges College have agreed

to demonstrate.

What you need to do in the next fortnight is get together

with your congregation or singing group, and sing as many hymns

as you possibly can, as creatively as you wish.

Yes, so for example, you could sing one hymn as quickly as possible.

# Praise my soul The King of Heaven #

Have you ever heard a line sung quicker than that?

No. How about as slow as possible?

# To his feet thy tribute bring. #

Hold me.

How about backwards?

# Forgiven, restored, Healed, ransomed. #

As quiet as possible?

# Who like me his praise Should sing? #

Quite similar to slow, that one.

And finally, the same words, but to a different tune.

# Praise him, praise him, Praise him, praise him. #

Ah, wonderful. Shall we have a massively over-the-top version?

Yes.

# Praise the everlasting King. #

Those guys are bonkers.

-They know how to have a good time, don't they?

-They certainly do.

Now then, if you visit our website, there's information on there

from Comic Relief on how to run your own hymnathon.

That's right, and if you tune in to BBC1 on March 15

and watch Red Nose Day, maybe one of your efforts will get a mention.

Yes, go to..

And whilst you're there,

you can vote for your favourite hymn or carol.

So grab a hymn book, start singing,

and raise as much money as you possibly can for Comic Relief.

In the meantime, just to prove that these guys are the real deal

and they can do it properly, here's their winning performance

from the 2012 Songs Of Praise school choir of the year competition.

This is Be Thou My Vision.

# Be thou my vision O Lord of my heart

# Be all else but naught to me Save that thou art

# Be thou my best thought In the day and the night

# Both waking and sleeping

# Thy presence my light

# Be thou my wisdom Be thou my true word

# Be thou ever with me And I with thee, Lord

# Be thou my great Father And I thy true son

# Be thou in me dwelling And I with thee one

# Be thou my breastplate My sword for the fight

# Be thou my whole armour Be thou my true might

# Be thou my soul's shelter Be thou my strong tower

# O raise thou me heavenward Great power of my power

# High King of Heaven Thou Heaven's bright sun

# O grant me its joys After victory is won

# Great heart of my own heart Whatever befall

# Still be thou my vision

# O Ruler of all

# Still be thou my vision

# O Ruler of all. #

Well, it's not everyday Songs Of Praise gets to talk

to one of the nation's favourite comedians.

What time's he getting here?

A little bit later on, actually. Don't be hard on yourself.

Comic Relief is almost upon us. You're involved, are you?

I am, yes. I'm doing Let's Dance.

In 25 years, though,

it's become a really important date on the comedy calendar.

Yes, it certainly is, yes.

I haven't got a comedy calendar.

Well, actually I have got a comedy calendar.

It goes "January, April, March."

Months are in a completely different order.

You were awesome!

You still look good, even with the moustache coming off.

How did you get into comedy in the first place?

Well, I don't know.

I think I messed about at school, like a lot of people did,

and I thought I'd like to continue that into my adulthood,

but I do think that laughter is a gift, if you like, from God.

I mean, there's nothing you can think of about laughter

that's bad, can you?

Only one of you will go straight through to the final,

and that act is...

Tim Vine!

But you have a personal faith.

I have a faith, it's where I keep my eyeth, my nothe and my mouth!

Yes, no, I do, yes, and I think that if you're making people laugh

and laughter is a healing thing, it's a good thing.

If I'm ever going off my job slightly, thinking,

"What am I doing this for?"

I can at least say, well, that's why I'm doing it,

because if you make someone laugh, it's a nice thing to do.

So faith and comedy can go hand-in-hand?

They can, I think, and they go skipping down a lane together.

Nice.

Listen, it's always great to catch up with you.

Yes, you too.

Good luck with the dancing.

Thank you. I'm actually on anti-barn-dance pills.

I'm not allowed to exceed the stated do-si-dosage.

He's here all day, ladies and gentlemen.

Comic Relief aims to reach every part of the UK with its work.

Often, the charities they support have started with a vision

of one person, like Jessie, from Stockton-on-Tees.

Growing up in Stockton, I was quite bored.

I began to take risks with my life, really.

I actually ended up getting involved with a guy who was a drug user.

The relationship just began to destroy my own self-esteem,

so I found myself, you know,

I'd compare myself to, you know,

a bag of heroin, and be like, "This guy's choosing heroin over me,"

and not really realising how powerful the addiction was.

I got to a point where I actually turned to prayer,

and I started to pray that I'd find a way out of this situation.

Jessie did find a way out.

She renewed her Christian faith and went to university.

Returning to Stockton, she became acutely aware of the difference

between the lives of teenagers in church and teenagers on the street.

I was just broken-hearted.

How can it be that two groups of young people can be living

such dramatically different lives in the same town,

within a mile of each other?

And so A Way Out was born,

with the aim of rescuing young women from exploitation.

Comic Relief funded their first worker.

Ten years later, they've helped around 5,000 women.

Before I went there, I used to be an alcoholic,

and they've really, really changed my life.

They've changed me,

and they've changed everything that I used to do.

I was in a domestic violence relationship.

I got away from my ex with their help, and got my baby back.

They've helped me through everything.

Some people think that these women have chosen to be on those streets,

but I know that women feel like they're being abused

every time they go out there, and they want it to stop.

You know, it's amazing that organisations like Comic Relief

get behind projects like A Way Out,

because that's God's heart, actually.

And for me, that's what Jesus was, everything he demonstrated,

what he came to do on Earth was to demonstrate love, and he went

to the ones who were the most marginalised and the most broken.

# You knew me at the start

# You know me at the end

# Dreams and reality

# And everything in between

# Jesus loves me

# This I know for sure

# Oh, how he loves me

# This I know for sure

# This is the life you made

# And journeyed with all the way

# Dreams and reality

# And everything in between

# Jesus loves me

# This I know for sure

# Oh, how he loves me

# This I know for sure

# Oh, how he loves me

# This I know for sure. #

'Lord, thank you for the way you love

'each and every one of us equally, regardless of our circumstances.'

'For giving everyone the gift of joy and laughter, Lord, we thank you.'

'Help us to learn from Christ's example,

'serving others each in our own way.'

'And thank you for the work of Comic Relief,

'bringing hope and healing at home and abroad.

'Amen.'

And that's almost it for this week.

They're almost done with the hymnathon. Haven't they done well?

They've done beautifully.

Do log on to our website and have a go yourself.

It's for a great cause, OK?

Comic Relief in 12 days' time promises to be bigger

and better than ever before.

He's involved in it, that's why.

Time for our final hymn, so it's goodbye from Tim Vine.

And it's goodbye from Pam Rhodes.

Next week, Pam will be here to celebrate Mothering Sunday,

with some great hymns from the congregation

at St Alban's Church in Bristol,

and some inspiring stories of motherhood - past and present.

Plus, special guests, the Military Wives.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd