French and Saunders to reprise The Extras characters for Comic Relief in The Repair Shop sketch

Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders will reprise their The Extras characters for a Comic Relief sketch.

For this year’s Comic Relief Night TV special on Friday 18 March, The Repair Shop’s workshop of dreams welcomes some very special guests into the barn.

A teaser shares: “With no job too small or too big for the team of craftspeople, they rarely find themselves sending customers away – that is until Red Nose Day! Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders reprise their characters ‘The Extras’ to blag a free fix from the team.

“Things take a chaotic turn when the pair of wannabe TV stars are desperate to have their five minutes of fame, and meet Jay Blades. But when Jay realises they are more extra-verts than extra-keen to have their loved belongings repaired, he sends them packing.

“All the while Julie Tatchell and Amanda Middleditch get to work on another very special guest’s repair, demonstrating how talented and skilful they are.”

Dawn French said: “I don’t think we’ve ever said no to Comic Relief because it just is too important, and because it’s from our community, and we were there right at the very beginning. I know that the money is spent correctly and I know that there are projects that are ongoing that need us to be ongoing and I wouldn’t ever want to let anyone down.

“So I think the more that we can do to boost and support, the better!”

Jennifer Saunders commented: “As I watched The Repair Shop I thought all I could ever see was these characters going into The Repair Shop, or me and Dawn pretending to mend something or imitating the characters. You know, I just thought, this is the show for us. Then Comic Relief said we’ve got The Repair Shop and it was like the perfect thing. It was so perfect!”

Jay Blades added: “I can’t believe the chaos that those two caused! We’re always surprised by what we see in the barn, but trust me, we’ve not seen anything like this in the barn before – you must watch it to see how funny it was. For fans of the show it’s a real treat!”

The sketch will air as part of Comic Relief’s telethon on Friday, 18 March from 7PM on BBC One and iPlayer.

Red Nose Day 2022 will be hosted by Alesha Dixon, David Tennant, Zoe Ball, Paddy McGuinness and Sir Lenny Henry. You can donate via bbc.co.uk/rednoseday