THE NEWS: BLACK & WHITE & RED-NOSED ALL OVER

In the United Kingdom, the charity fund-raiser Comic Relief began in 1988 and every year seems to culminate with Red Nose Day. And the BBC has put out this press release for a special TV crossover in connection with the event, coming up on Friday, March 13:

In a first for BBC Three, the cast of 'Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps' are joined by the casts of 'Coming Of Age' and 'Grown Ups' in a special episode for Comic Relief.

Tim, the bartender of The Archer, arranges Timothy Claypole's Comic Relief Night Of Fun – a pub quiz with a twist.

Split into three teams, the guys and girls battle it out in three categories, starting with the "bitch off", which literally ends in tears as Gaz takes it too far and DK takes it personally. Next is the "drink off" in which Grant, Donna and Matt head for the bar to see who can down a pint of lager the fastest.

The final category is the "flirt off" and Gaz is in his element. Jas joins Michelle and Janet (both played by Sheridan Smith), who do their best to seduce Gaz into giving them the highest score for their flirting abilities. As Michelle and Janet try their best lines, Jas shows that, where Gaz is concerned, the direct approach works best.

As a special treat for Comic Relief the episode ends with a song – Stop Thinking, Start Drinking – featuring an unmissable rapping duet from DK and Gaz.

This Comic Relief special is co-written by Susan Nickson ('Two Pints Of Lager' and 'Grown Ups') and Tim Dawson ('Coming Of Age').

I'm not sure how this is going to be played out. When there was a crossover between 'Doctor Who' and 'EastEnders' ('Dimenstions in Time'), I felt comfortable with including that in Toobworld proper. But this could turn out to be the representation of all these established characters in the dimension of Skitlandia.

That's going to be a pretty neat trick seeing Sheridan Smith playing both Janet and Michelle; it'll be reminiscent of Lisa Kudrow playing Phoebe on 'Friends' and Ursula on 'Mad About You' and their occasional meetings on 'Friends'.

Hopefully video of this will surface on YouTube, or at the very least there will be news photos of this 3-way coming over the wire. Somehow I'll find a way to grab something to share with the visitors to Toobworld.

And for this bit o' news, which may turn out to be the Crossover of the Year, Toobworld Central is giving really big thanks to Andrew Brook for letting me know about it.

BCnU!
Toby O'B