Is the public disengaging with the annual fundraiser?

Comic Relief has seen donations drop for the fourth year in a row.

This year’s on-the-night total fell by more than £9m compared with last year, from £52m to £42.8m.

Comic Relief said the total took the total raised past £1.5bn since it was founded in 1985.

Samir Patel, chief executive of Comic Relief, said: “To have raised £42m so far, with money still coming in, during such worrying and challenging times is an achievement we feel incredibly proud of rather than seeing this as a loss on last year’s total.

“We’re hugely grateful and thank the public and our partners for their extraordinary generosity, and recognise that times have been, and continue to be, incredibly tough for many of us economically over the past few years.

“Now we face the enormous rising cost of living and the uncertainty of the pandemic recovery, and the amazing British public has also given hundreds of millions to support the devastating crisis in Ukraine.

“The public often dig deep at times of crisis, and this has been shown this Red Nose Day.

“Every donation, no matter how big or small, will make such a difference and enable us to carry on supporting vital, life-changing work in the UK and around the world.”

Comic Relief announced last year that it would move to running Red Nose Day every 12 months rather than every two years in rotation with Sport Relief, which would become an all-year round campaign.