Russell Brand overcomes personal misery to bring some Sport Relief to Match of the Day
Brand dusts the BBC1 football highlights show with some comedy gold despite witnessing his team West Ham lose to Manchester United
Comedian Russell Brand was forced to put on a brave face last night when he joined Match of the Day regulars Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer as a pundit on the BBC1 show.
The passionate West Ham supporter, who appeared as part of a Sport Relief special, joined Brazil's World Cup winner Leonardo on the sofa to analyse his team’s 2-0 defeat to the Premier League champions Manchester United.
But the 38-year-old at least did his job by bringing some sporting relief to proceedings when commenting on the game which saw a wonder strike from Manchester United's Wayne Rooney sink his team.
Referring to Rooney’s goal from nearly 60 yards out, Brand comically said that you “must focus on the injustice before the goal”, alleging a foul on West Ham player James Tomkins.
Brand said that “the East End has not seen that sort of injustice since the dark days of Jack the Ripper”, and “West Ham are defined by integrity”.
Brand also posted a selfie with former England strikers and presenters Lineker and Shearer (pictured).
His appearance helped round off a successful Sport Relief for the BBC which kickstarted on Friday night when Kylie Minogue and Jason Donovan were reunited live on British television for the first time in 25 years as more than £51m was raised for the charity.
The Australian pair performed a duet of their 1988 hit Especially For You during the BBC1 charity marathon as a fundraising grand total of £51,242,186 was announced at the end of the broadcast.
This beat the record £50.4m raised during the last Sport Relief in 2012.
Other highlights on Friday night included David Beckham starring in the first new episode of Only Fools And Horses for more than 11 years and the first airing of the England football team's World Cup song, a cover version of Take That's Greatest Day.
