Childish Things celebrates ten years of major names and fun for the best of causes

Memories will come flooding back: Bill Nighy fronting Radiohead to perform Love Is All Around, the night Jude Law took his shirt off and the time Miranda Hart got down to some dirty dancing with James Corden.

Over a decade Childish Things, the fundraising night of comedy and music for Helen and Douglas House, has become Oxford’s biggest night of entertainment featuring line-ups of stars, who individually have little difficulty in selling our arenas.

But later this month the curtain will finally come down on this landmark on the Oxford theatre calendar, with the two final shows held at the New Theatre on Monday, March 24, and Tuesday, March 25.

After a 10-year roll call reading like a who’s who of British comedy, the team behind Childish Things want to go out leaving them laughing.

And with the two final line-ups including Jimmy Carr, Jo Brand and Rob Brydon, it is a very good bet that they will get their wish.

Last year’s shows, featuring Michael McIntyre and Jamie Cullum, raised more than £100,000 for the hospice.

By the time the proceeds of this year’s performances are counted, it is very likely that Childish Things will have delivered a very serious sum of £600,000 to the world famous hospice based in East Oxford.

For Helen and Douglas House event manager Lizzie Pickering, who co-produces the show with Kate Day, for once the tears at the end will not be from laughter.

“Yes, there will be a lump in my throat by the end,” she tells me. “Ten years is an incredibly long time. Most of the events we put on are for two or three years. I didn’t think we could run an event for so many years.”

Not bad, considering the first show in 2004 was organised as a one-off.

It had been the idea of the actor Tom Hollander, who was brought up in North Oxford. The former pupil of The Dragon and Abingdon School wanted to do something to help Helen House, where his niece is a visitor, and cajoled his famous friends to put on a show at the Oxford Playhouse, which raised £40,000.

The line-up had included Jeremy Irons, Sinead Cusack, Sir John Mortimer, Griff Rhys Jones, Hugh Laurie, Steve Coogan, Sir Michael Gambon and Bill Nighy, fresh from his movie-stealing performance in Love Actually.

While film work commitments meant Hollander was unable to organise a repeat performance, he readily agreed to Helen House being able to run with the Childish Things name and idea.

Happily, Helen House was able to benefit from the impressive show business connections of Lizzie, who had previously been a member of the production team behind Big Breakfast and Channel 4 News, and had a strong personal attachment to Helen House.

She and her family were regular visitors there after her son Harry became ill.

At 17 months, he had been diagnosed with spinal muscular atrophy and he went to Helen House as his condition worsened. Following his death, Lizzie had felt unable to walk away, knowing that other families were going through the same thing.

Kate, her close friend, had become a volunteer at the children’s hospice, the first of its kind in the world.

“I used to go in and baby sit for Harry’s brother and sister. I just fell in love with the place,” she recalled.

The two women had known each other since their school days in Kent, where they had together formed their own youth theatre. Having been a leading television casting director, who had worked on successful comedies such as Drop The Dead Donkey, Kate knew many leading comedy agents and was well placed to take on Childish Things.

Two other friendships were also to be valuable. Lizzie was a close friend of Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson and his wife Frances, who had helped her raise money through celebrity power boating and go-karting events.

They would introduce her to John Lloyd, the creator of such television classics as Spitting Image, Blackadder and QI, who for the next nine years was happy to help out as he now says, “by bullying celebs to appear on the shows”.

In reality, once stars like Rob Brydon, Jimmy Carr and Graham Norton had appeared, they developed close and lasting relationships with the hospice for terminally-ill children and young people, visiting the hospice to meet staff, children and families.

“Normally when they tour they are on their own with a tour manager. They just love appearing in the show and being back stage with so many other comedians and, of course, musicians,” said Lizzie.

“And once they walk through the doors of Helen and Douglas House they really engage with what we are doing and are happy to ask friends to take part.”

So what are Lizzie’s favourite moments?.

She immediately lists a live QI featuring Jimmy Carr, Stephen Fry, Alan Davies and Jeremy Clarkson and an appearance by Rowan Atkinson.

“We kept him as a surprise. I remember we put a spotlight on his nose, then as the audience began to recognise him there was an audible gasp before an enormous barrage of applause.

“It has also been great introducing new acts. When Jack Whitehall came, he was straight from college. No one knew who he was. Now he is everywhere.”

One new face this time — at least on stage — will be Oxfordshire resident John Lloyd. After being involved in bringing so much classic comedy to television and radio, at 61 he is now taking up stand-up.

It is certainly proving challenging, he admits.

“In my experience public speaking is all about the preparation. That's the hard bit. “For me, writing speeches is absolute hell. But if you’re willing to suffer through that stage until you’ve got it right, delivering the material itself is a breeze. And if it’s also funny, it is the most fun a human being can have.”

So why, you wonder, is all the fun coming to an end?

Well in a way, the show has become a victim of its own success. With such impressive line-ups repeated over the years, meeting audience expectations has become harder each time.

“Over the last 10 years comedians have become like rock stars,” said Lizzie.

“It is much harder to get the big names.

“We have been lucky that stars have been so generous, particularly as they are now asked to do so many charity benefits.

“Childish Things could have sold out the Royal Albert Hall. It had been suggested it could be moved to London. But we wanted to keep it in Oxford with tickets kept at affordable prices.

“But audiences have become used to seeing big names. And there are 11 or 12 acts a night.

“We just felt that we could not risk finding that one year at some point in the future that we’d disappointed audiences because we had been unable to deliver the kind of acts expected.”

There will be no risk of disappointment looking at the line-ups of the final two performances. Thankfully, after 10 years, Childish Things will bow out just as it began to the sound of laughter.

For tickets and further information about Helen and Douglas House visit helenanddouglas.org.uk