Sport & Fitness

Sport Relief Presents Little Britain’s Big Swim, Thursday 13, 8-9pm BBC1

Over the past few weeks of this sporting summer we’ve seen celebrities playing football, cricket and messing around on horses to raise money for charity, but one celebrity fundraising initiative kicks all of these into a very distant touch. David Walliams’ attempt to swim the channel required more discomfort, sacrifice and hard work than all of the others put together, and it’s impossible not to be deeply impressed by his achievement. This doc, narrated by Matt Lucas and filmed over his nine-month training period and final swim, follows Walliams as he tries to combine preparation for the gruelling 21-mile swim with the sell-out ‘Little Britain’ tour. This includes swimming 200 lengths every single morning, completing the four-mile swim from Portsmouth to the Isle Of Wight in water that’s colder than the channel (something even his fitness trainer can’t manage), and finally completing an eight-hour swim in Croatia to prove he’s ready for the big event. All the way through he manages to put a brave face on the intense cold and negative thoughts, even cracking the odd joke, and generally banishing suspicions that this, unlike some other celebrity charity work, is ultimately a self-serving exercise. If anything makes you pull out the chequebook for Sport Relief, this will probably be it. Feature continues

Sport Relief, Saturday 15, 7-10pm; 10.30pm-12.50am BBC1

In 2004 Sport Relief raised over £11 million for needy causes here and abroad, proving itself a worthy alternative to its sister fundraiser Comic Relief. This year, no doubt, everyone will be imploring viewers to exceed this amount on tonight’s live show which is hosted by Gary Lineker, Chris Evans and, fresh from her ill-advised foray into chat shows, Davina McCall. There’s a lot of ego to be brushed aside there, but presumably it will be as we get to see the results of all the hard work celebs and ordinary people have been putting in around the country. There’s highlights from the Sainsbury’s Sport Relief miles, the ‘Only Fools On Horses’ semi-finals and final, a celebrity-celebrity boxing match between newly toned Jack Osbourne and Bradley McIntosh and Peter Kay live from the Phoenix Club. Among the celebs and sports stars turning up on the night will be Jose Mourinho (who was speaking to Jon Culshaw), Seb Coe, Colin Montgomerie, Nancy Dell Ollio and David Walliams talking about his incredible swim. As usual it’ll be a hard slog if you sit through the whole thing, better to dip in and out.