Host of famous Amandas in Comic Relief sketch

Comic Relief is to air a new  Amandaland sketch on Friday, with the titular character encountering some more famous Amandas.

Amanda Holden, Amanda Lamb, Amanda Barrie, Amanda Byram and Amanda Collier all took part in the scene.

It revolves around the sitcom’s Amanda (Lucy Punch)  and her put-upon friend Anne (Philippa Dunne)  being invited to BBC Broadcasting House for a live radio interview with Sara Cox.

Holden said: ‘I can’t quite believe I’m involved in this… I am a massive, massive fan of Amandaland. We watch it religiously in our house, so it’s a little bit of an out-of-body experience for me, especially because my name gets mentioned in the sitcom quite a bit!

‘The premise is that there’s been a mix up and we’ve all come to the same place but aren’t all meant to be here! It might go slightly awry, and it might be that Anne is the star of the show in the end!’

Dunne added: ‘Doing a sketch for Comic Relief is pretty iconic…  any chance to do a bit of Amanda and Anne stuff is always fun as far as I’m concerned. We could perform Amanda and Anne in our sleep, but the main thing is we just really love it. We just have the utmost fun when we’re doing those two characters because we get to be silly, so it’s really nice.’

Cox’s overwhelmed radio producer is played by It’s A Sin star Lydia West, and the production runner is played by Lucia Keskin, creator of the BBC comedy Things You Should Have Done.

The Radio 2 presenter said of the filming: 'It’s been incredible – I mean I was playing the DJ, so it wasn’t that much of a stretch, but it was just brilliant to work with actual Amanda from Amandaland, and so many iconic Amandas. 

‘I mean come on, we had Lamb, we had Holden, we had Barrie – who I grew up with, not literally – but on Coronation Street. So, it’s been an incredible time pretending to be an actor and getting to work with amazing Lydia West who was playing my producer. What a morning, I’m absolutely buzzing!’

A  behind the scenes look at the filming of the sketch will air on The One Show on Thursday. 

Comic Relief: Funny For Money is live from MediaCityUK in Salford on BBC One from 7pm on Friday.

Published: 16 Mar 2026