On December 26^th 2004 there was a 9.1 magnitude earthquake in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. 15 countries were affected by the devastation, across Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, the Maldives and Thailand.

In what was one of the worst natural disasters in our modern history (30m high waves) over 228,000 people were killed. More details on Britannica.

On February 22^nd some of the biggest names in UK comedy performed for Comic Aid, to raise money for the Tsunami relief fund. Tickets reportedly sold out in 3.5 minutes and the 3-hour show was put out as a DVD, with some edited highlights being shown on the BBC:

• Part 1 (1 hour) shown 26^th Feb 2005 on BBC1
• Part 2 (1 hour) shown 26^th Feb 2005 on BBC2

The performers included:

• Bill Bailey
• Jo Brand
• Derren Brown
• Jimmy Carr
• Jon Culshaw
• Steven Dean Davis (Stomp)
• Omid Djalili
• Lee Evans
• Lee Francis (the bear)
• Dawn French (as Catherine Zeta-Jones)
• Rich Hall (as Otis Lee Crenshaw)
• Eddie Izzard
• Alistair McGowan
• Dylan Moran
• Ardal O’Hanlon
• Miranda Richardson
• Reece Shearsmith
• Dave Spikey
• Johnny Vegas
• Simon Pegg & Jessica Stevenson

With presenters / hosts:

• Julian Clary
• Jack Dee
• Jessica Hynes
• Graham Norton
• Jonathan Ross
• Paul O’Grady (as Lily Savage)