Charity telethon tops £50m on first night

Sport Relief has raised £50m in public donations, a new on-the-night record for the charity telethon.

The figure was announced at the end of the marathon at 1.30am yesterday. Stars of sport and entertainment came together for the BBC show and helped to raise £50,447,197, which is £21m more than was raised last year.

During the show, the comic Miranda Hart battled Tim Henman in a tennis game that ended when she was "knocked out" by her on-screen mother, Patricia Hodge, while a one-off special of the sitcom Outnumbered featured Frank Lampard and Christine Bleakley in an encounter with the Brockman family. The £50m is expected to grow today with further fundraising taking place. A million people are expected to run the Sport Relief mile, including JLS, Dame Kelly Holmes and Sir Steve Redgrave.