We headed up to Dock10 studios at MediaCity, Manchester, to build and deliver two full live shows, bookending the night.

First up was “Meet The Band” – our pre-show, live on Comic Relief’s YouTube channel from 30 minutes before broadcast. This year, Comic Relief challenged a group of much-loved social creators – Ayame, Sarel, Victor Kunda and Specs Gonzalez – to form a brand new pop group and make their live performance debut on BBC One.

Before that debut, we brought viewers backstage for an intimate, stripped-back studio session hosted by Charley Marlowe and Joe Baggs, capturing all the nerves, chat and excitement counting down to 7pm.

Think Jools Holland-era music TV energy, but built for YouTube: exposed kit, warm lighting, and the band answering fan questions pulled live from chat!

Then, once BBC One wrapped at 10pm, we were straight back live with Comic Relief’s Cab Rank – a format we built from scratch.

The idea: our celebrity guests each had to earn their ride home, one challenge at a time, on a purpose-built, prop-led set designed to feel playful, theatrical and unmistakably late-night.

But would the celebrity faces be allowed a cab ride home and complete our challenges? Games like One Word Off, Confession or Fine, and Passenger Seat broughto life the cab rank with Catherine Tate’s Nan causing chaos in the studio! Other famous faces included Davina McCall, Joel Dommett, La Voix, Katherine Ryan and Joe Marler.

Behind the scenes, this was a proper full-scale broadcast build – a full OB gallery, multi-camera live production, bespoke set design and build for both shows, and a crew of over 20 on-site across two days, all delivering two live, back-to-back YouTube programmes either side of one of the biggest nights in the UK broadcast calendar.

Nothing about it could be reshot; it all had to land live, on the night, exactly as it happened!

Projects like this are exactly why we love what we do. It’s not just about capturing a moment – it’s about building a genuinely new format for a brand as beloved as Comic Relief, one that can flex and repeat for future Red Nose Days, Sport Relief, and beyond.

Taking a client’s biggest night of the year and finding a new way for audiences to stay part of it, long after the credits roll on BBC One, is the kind of brief that gets the whole team fired up.

If you want to learn more about the projects we’re proud to be part of, follow us on social or get in touch – we can’t wait to share more of the work we’re doing to build formats that people actually want to stick around for.