Red Nose Day: Russell Brand makes dig at Dominic Cummings in Comic Relief sketch

Comedian and actor starred in sketch alongside Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan

Viewers have been praising Russell Brand for a Comic Relief sketch in which he mocked Dominic Cummings for his Barnard Castle trip.

Cummings’s decision to drive 260 miles from London to Durham during the height of lockdown last May provoked widespread outrage among the public.

The strategist’s claim that he made the trip to “test his eyesight” was the subject of much derision online.

In a sketch for Red Nose Day, which saw several celebrities star in a mock-trailer for 2020: The Movie, Brand played fitness coach Joe Wicks.

He could be seen doing exercises at home, saying: “You may get fit by going on a trip to Barnard Castle, or you can get fit here.”

“Russell Brand playing Joe Wicks in a film about UK lockdown makes an annoyingly funny amount of sense,” tweeted one fan.

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“I love Russell Brand so much lol,” wrote another.

The disaster movie sketch, which riffed on lockdown troubles from boredom to home-schooling, also featured Keira Knightley as “the woman who can’t take it anymore” and Carey Mulligan as “the woman who really, really, really can’t take it anymore”.

Anna Friel, meanwhile, was seen giving herself a terrible haircut. Doctor Who star Jodie Whittaker played a medical doctor.

Find out everything you need to know about Comic Relief 2021 here.