17 MARCH 2007, Page 30

Use your remote, Rod

Sir: Rod Liddle, in his excoriation of Red Nose Day last week (was there ever a subject easier to lambast, or one less in need of it?), tells us that, without the input of Billy Connolly and Ant and Dec, inter alia, much less money would be raised. He then asks the question ‘Why do we need Billy Connolly to tell us that people are in need? Why should Ant and Dec’s presence make us dig deeper into our pockets?’ Because without them much less money would be raised. It’s the way Red Nose Day works. If he doesn’t like it, then maybe he could try ITV or Channels 4/5 for a day.

Edward Collier

Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

Sir: Rod Liddle is spot-on with his diatribe on Red Nose Day, surely the most vomitinducing programme ever aired on TV. Sure, the cause is good but the fund-raising methods employed are so ghastly and the humour so abysmal that no normal person could watch for more than a few minutes without wishing to put a boot through the screen.

Terence F.E. Lane

Aston Clinton, Buckinghamshire