Britain’s Best Comic talent will gather together to regale the nation with side-splitting skits and rollicking satire – and all for a good cause.

There’s only one place to be on Friday March 18th, and that’s in front of the box, as Red Nose Day 2011 kicks off with a host of Britain’s top crop of comedy stars including Lenny Henry, Michael McIntyre and Graham Norton.

The entertainers will be charged with keeping the BBC studio audience and millions of viewers appraised of the plethora of charity efforts that ordinary people across the UK have put their hearts into for this incredible cause.

Others hosting the evening will include Fearne Cotton, James Corden, Davina McCall, Jack Whitehall, Kevin Bridges, Claudia Winkleman and Jonathan Ross.

The Red Nose TV extravaganza will include brilliant sketches, hilarious comedy moments and celebrity reports from the UK and Africa, in the hope of raising millions of pounds for charity.

The special programming includes a ‘home swap’ programme where TV stars, Lenny Henry and Angela Rippon, give up the comfort of their homes to experience the challenge of living with families in Africa’s largest urban slum.

There will also be a ‘Let’s Dance for Comic Relief’ show, where the biggest names from the world of entertainment will show off their fancy footwork, and all the BBC radio stations will be dedicating their programming to Red Nose Day.

As well as the TV and radio takeover, the whole country will get together to do something funny for money and change lives in the process.

Comic Relief is a major charity based in the UK which strives to create a just world free from poverty

Their mission is to drive positive change through the power of entertainment.

Since they started up 25 years ago, they’ve been doing three main things:

• Raising millions of pounds through two big fundraising campaigns – Red Nose Day and Sport Relief.

• Spending that money in the best possible way to tackle the root causes of poverty and social injustice.

• Using the power of the brand to raise awareness of the issues that they care most about.

Their aim is to bring about real and lasting change by tackling the root causes of poverty and social injustice, rather than simply treating the symptoms.

So, to drive this change, they fund hundreds of projects on the ground that work to give people a helping hand with the aim of ultimately providing them with the resources to enable them to help themselves.