Red Nose Day: Big Tea

On Friday Leicester square played host to a major teapot all courtesy to a great Red Nose Day stunt inspired by mad hatters. The 8ft 4 tea pot was all courtesy of none other than dragons dens Theo Paphitis.

Theo was joined by Matt Cardle, Lauren Goodger, Jake Wood, Helen Lederer, Nick Moran and Paul Bradley, all part of this years push to help those in need. The teapot took inspiration from mad hatters afternoon tea and was a great way of bringing the everyday Londoner together for a tea in celebration of comic relief.

Theo was at the heart of it and a generous man to say the least. From running his school tuck-shop at 15, Theo Paphitis has gone on to amass over £210 million through his retail business empire, which includes stationery chain Ryman, homeware specialist Robert Dyas and lingerie retailer Boux Avenue.

Theo is not just a highly successful businessman. He’s become a TV star as a regular TV “dragon” on Dragons Den. He was also Chairman of Millwall Football Club from 1997 until 2005, taking them out of administration and into the FA Cup final.

Theo is a director of comic relief and has been for many years. Talking about his love for comic relief, Theo said  “I’m a director of Comic Relief, for a start, I’ve been involved with them for many years, I’ve been to many of the projects around the world that we fund to see where the money is spent that the great British public donate to and that it’s spent properly and well. I’ve been involved with it with my businesses for a number of years, both Ryman and Robert Dyas, both convenience shops involved with our communities so there’s real great enthusiasm in those six weeks leading up to Comic Relief where it gives our colleagues the opportunity to interact with our customers, have a bit of fun, be a bit silly, come off the tracks a little bit and come away from the mundane part of life and raise millions and millions of pounds, which we do every year for the charity, and help others, so it really is win-win all round.”

The porcelain Red Nose Day teapots cost £4.99 from Robert Dyas or from their online shop with at least £2.25 from each sale going to Comic Relief.

By Norradean Amorro