Record £57m haul for Comic Relief

A record £57m has been raised on the night of Comic Relief, with more money expected to flood in.

By the end of the BBC One show on Friday night the grand total stood at £57,809,938, easily smashing the record of £40.5m set the last time the TV charity event took place in 2007.

And the figure is expected to rise as donations continue to come in.

Announcing the total at the end of the night, Graham Norton said, "Masses of fundraising money isn't in yet. Last time we added £20m to our end-of-night total."

The money will go towards helping disadvantaged people in Africa and the UK.

Guest stars on Friday night's show included David Beckham, Robbie Williams and Kate Moss.

Highlights included French and Saunders starring in their last ever sketch together - a parody of the smash hit movie Mamma Mia.

There were also special editions of Harry Hill's TV Burp and Dragon's Den, in which the tycoons pitched their wares to Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse.

The night's first hosts, David Tennant and Davina McCall, went head to head in a special edition of Mastermind, while supermodel Moss and Sadie Frost starred in a sketch with comedian Katie Brand.

Gavin and Stacey's James Corden provided one of the high points of the evening as he berated Beckham and other England footballers Frank Lampard and Peter Crouch for missing out on qualification for Euro 2008.

Others who took part in the show included Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, and the cast of Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps.

And Top Of The Pops was brought back for a night, with performances from the likes of U2, Oasis, Take That and Franz Ferdinand. Rob Brydon, Ruth Jones and Tom Jones also appeared, performing this year's official Comic Relief single Islands In The Stream.