Take That will join James Corden for a special edition of Carpool Karaoke as they take a Red Nose Day spin around Los Angeles.

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Ahead of the skit airing on Friday 24th March, Take That's Mark Owen, Howard Donald and Gary Barlow have lifted the bonnet to show Carpool Karaoke's inner workings.

"It was an amazing experience filming,” Donald told the new edition of Radio Times. “You don’t realise how much work goes into it.

"As soon as you get in the car you’ve got 30, 40 cameras pointing at you from different angles. You have to be sitting in a certain position. There’s a crew of about 25 people. You’re in convoy, and you’re driving around LA for almost three hours.”

And does Corden actually drive, instead of being towed around on a trailer as some have speculated? It seems so.

“He doesn’t drive fast,” Barlow explains. But the route is far from exciting: “The trouble with LA is, there’s too many cars. So there’s a circuit they do where the roads are quite clear, so you keeping moving.”

The Take That frontman went on to confirm that the skit is not part of an effort from the band to crack the US market.

At the time of their 1996 split they were on the brink of making it on the other side of the Atlantic, but despite their 2006 reunion, Take That remains largely unknown on the other side of the pond. Not that they seem to mind.

“Let’s be clear,” Barlow said. “We don’t have any designs on breaking America. We honestly don’t. We’re at the wrong point in our career. We celebrate still having a career in Europe!”

What other sketches will air for Red Nose Day 2017?

Other programmes lined up for the evening include a Smack the Pony reunion, and the much-anticipated Love Actually special, fittingly titled Red Nose Day Actually.

Creator Emma Freud has been keeping us on our toes by dripping out bits of information, but the sketch – featuring original cast including Hugh Grant, Rowan Atkinson, Colin Firth, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Bill Nighy, Liam Neeson and Keira Knightley – will finally be aired so viewers can find out what happened to the characters in the 13 years since the original movie.

Fortunately, the BBC is also packing in plenty of other content – and there should be something for everyone.

Viewers will get a sneak peek at the second series of Peter Kay's Car Share, and there will also be a preview of new chat show All Round to Mrs Brown's from Brendan O'Carroll and the Mrs Brown's Boys gang.

Then there's the intriguingly-titled Middle Class Jeremy Kyle, which will see the ITV host taken to task in front of his own baying studio audience – hosted by David Walliams.

Philomena Cunk is putting in a special appearance with an edition of her "moments of wonder", while Matt Berry steps in for Toast of London.

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Red Nose Day will air on Friday 24th March from 7pm on BBC1. Read the full interview with Take That in this week's issue of the Radio Times, on sale now

Authors

Eleanor Bley GriffithsDrama Editor, RadioTimes.com
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