Rick Astley

Get your credit card out, make the phone call, pledge the money. Then you can sit back, guilt-free, and enjoy the funniest evening on telly since oooh, probably the last Red Nose Day. Anyone who's anyone from the world of comedy is on BBC TV tonight. There's funny stuff by Lenny Henry, Graham Norton, Peter Kay, Harry Hill and James Corden, and a road trip in the company of The Inbetweeners around the rudest places in Britain. There's also a mini episode of Doctor Who featuring two Amy Ponds, a special edition of Outnumbered and a Downton Abbey spoof. Adele sings live, and in a celebrity MasterChef Miranda Hart and Claudia Winkleman go head to head, which ought to be a physical impossibility. We also get a special version of The Choir, Gareth Malone's foolhardy bid to get celebrity chefs to sing Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up. In between all this are sobering film clips reminding us what it's all about and a ten-minute edition of EastEnders resolving the disturbing story about teenage prostitution.

Jane Rackham, Comic Relief, 18th March 2011

Rick Astley supports Peter Kay as tour opens

1980s pop star Rick Astley was a surprise guest at the Manchester MEN Arena on the first night of Peter Kay's sold-out tour.

BBC News, 28th April 2010

It crammed in so many songs, they were never all going to be funny whilst the second hour-long results show confirmed what a seriously indulgent exercise it all was.

It's one thing getting Pete Waterman, Nikki Chapman and Neil Fox to send themselves up but having a parody of The Pop Factor without a Simon Cowell figure was a major cop out by Kay.

Having said that, Marc Pickering's performance as Leon, I mean, R Wayne, was brilliant - particularly his version of Ebony and Ivory with his ventriloquist's dummy of Stevie Wonder. The cameos by Rick Astley, the Cheeky Girls, and Macca doing the themes from Blankety Blank and Home and Away were better than most of Extras.

The one moment of comedy genius was Michelle McMammoth look-a-like cum-transsexual Geraldine's medley merging seamlessly from Born To Run to Born Free to Free Nelson Mandela and Umbrella.

Jim Shelley, The Mirror, 20th October 2008