After weeks of hype, the Love, Actually Comic Relief short sequel, Red Nose Day, Actually, finally aired tonight. It might not compare to Stephen’s version of events, but was exactly what you’d expect, really – the most memorable elements of each plotline recreated and recycled, with lots of jokes about the charity added in. So what did Red Nose Day, Actually actually teach us? 
 
 Andrew Lincoln’s character was always a creep 
 
 It was weird to show up outside Keira Knightley’s house in 2003, and it’s even weirder now, when you haven’t seen each other in almost a decade. Please stop. 
 
 It’s also really weird to bring your supermodel wife purely to show her off like a trophy. She doesn’t even know these people. She must be really confused. Let her go home, “Mark”. 
 
 Kate Moss is forever a great sport 
 
 Judging by the staggering number of appearances she makes at these things, Kate Moss has never said no to a charity appearance, even when she’s asked to do the most ridiculous and frankly insulting things, like pretend she would ever voluntarily have sex with “Mark”. 
 
 Self-service machines are a gift and a curse 
 
 In reality, Rowan Atkinson’s gift-wrapping enthusiast would have lasted about one hour in Sainsbury’s before being replaced by a machine. 
 
 Colin Firth’s character is an utter embarrassment, pull yourself together man 
 
 You’re a writer, Colin. You make a living out of paying attention to language and words. You’ve been married to your Portuguese-speaking wife for almost fourteen years. You learned enough to make a terrible proposal all those years ago. Are you seriously telling me you haven’t learned enough to sustain a single conversation with your family? Do you hate them? Kind of seems that way, Colin. 
 
 Even gay subtext is enough to get you killed 
 
 As Eleanor Margolis reminds us, a deleted storyline from the original Love, Actually was one in which “the resplendent Frances de la Tour plays the terminally ill partner of a “stern headmistress” with a marshmallow interior (Anne Reid).” Of course, even in deleted scenes, gay love stories can only end in death, especially in 2003. The same applies to 2017’s Red Nose Day actually. Many fans speculated that Bill Nighy’s character was in romantic love with his manager, Joe – so, reliably, Joe has met a tragic end by the time the sequel rolls around. 
 
 Hugh Grant is a fantasy Prime Minister for 2017 
 
 Telling a predatory POTUS to fuck off despite the pressure to preserve good relations with the USA? Inspirational. No wonder he’s held on to office this long, despite only demonstrating skills of “swearing”, “possibly harassing junior staff members” and “somewhat rousing narration”. 
 
 If you get together in Christmas 2003, you will stay together forever. It’s just science. 
 
 Even if you’ve spent nearly fourteen years clinging onto public office. Even if you were a literal child when you met. Even if you hate your wife so much you refuse to learn her first language. 
 
 Now listen to the SRSLY Love, Actually special: ||||| Comic Relief's hotly-anticipated mini reboot of romantic-comedy, Love Actually, finally made its way to our TV screens and fans were quick to praise the follow-up for keeping the charm and heart of the original. 
 
 Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson, Keira Knightley, Bill Nighy, Rowan Atkinson and Colin Firth were among the stars who reprised their much-loved roles for the short film dubbed, Red Nose Day Actually. 
 
 The 2003 film's creator and director Richard Curtis, who is also the co-founder of Comic Relief and has co-produced the event for the BBC since 1988, created the ten-minute short, which revisited some of the famous storylines 14 years on from the original film - including a final resolution to the film's famous love triangle between the characters played by Andrew Lincoln, Knightley, and Ejiofor. 
 
 Fans took to social media in their droves to comment on Hugh Grant's new dance moves and a surprise cameo from none other than Kate Moss. 
 
 😂😂😂 Hugh Grant dancing hasn't improved in 13 years #loveactually #RedNoseDay — Natascha (@Natascha_Kilts) March 24, 2017 
 
 Hugh Grant dancing to Drake is amazing #RedNoseDay #loveactually — Mini Fish (@LizzFisher) March 24, 2017 
 
 This is the best thing that's happened in ages #LoveActually #ComicRelief — amelia (@ameliacolthart) March 24, 2017 
 
 Curtis previously said the TV special would be a "nostalgic moment" for the old cast, and joked that he is most interested to see who has aged the most gracefully. 
 
 "I guess that's the big question...or is it so obviously Liam?" he said. 
 
 "Over the years I've enjoyed doing Red Nose Day specials of TV things I've worked on - Blackadder, The Vicar Of Dibley and Mr Bean - it seemed like a fun idea this year to do a special sketch based one of my films." 
 
 "I would never have dreamt of writing a sequel to Love Actually, but I thought it might be fun to do 10 minutes to see what everyone is now up to. 
 
 "We hope to make something that'll be fun - very much in the spirit of the original film and of Red Nose Day - and which we hope will help bring lots of viewers and cash to the Red Nose Day shows," he added. 
 
 Emma Freud, director of Red Nose Day, delighted fans with some behind-the-scenes photos on Twitter on the run-up to the eagerly-awaited sequel. 
 
 Our pm is still married. And she's still lovely. #rednosedayactually pic.twitter.com/MGtUVDGiBE — emma freud (@emmafreud) March 5, 2017 
 
 However, the special was tinged with some sadness as the much-loved Alan Rickman was absent following his sudden death last year. 
 
 The only thing that makes me sad is that Alan Rickman didn't get to witness this or be a part of this 💔 #LoveActually #RedNoseDay — Kaja 😈🐾 (@blackrose1002) March 24, 2017 
 
 Emma Thompson, who played his wife who was cheated on in the original movie, recently said it would be "too sad and too soon" after Rickman's death for her to take part in the film's Comic Relief sequel. 
 
 Kris Marshall, who played the hopeless-in-love Colin Frissell , who moves to America to try his luck with the ladies in the 2003 movie, also revealed he wouldn't be starring in the movie's second outing. 
 
 Other highlights of the Comic Relief special included Take That’s Carpool Karaoke, some live rapping from Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, and appearances from Alan Partridge and Mrs Brown. ||||| When Love Actually premiered in 2003, the ensemble rom-com featured one very special supermodel cameo—Claudia Schiffer—as a potential love match for Liam Neeson. And when the long-awaited, sequel premiered on Friday, as part of Red Nose Day in the U.K., the 10-minute follow-up featured another surprise cameo from the catwalk. This time around, though, the supermodel in question only had eyes for Mark (Andrew Lincoln) and his beard. Sorry, Juliet (Keira Knightley). 
 
 Take a look at the first snippet below. 
 
 And if you’re a sucker for spoilers, you can also catch a few other excerpts posted by fans on Twitter. (The full special won’t air in the U.S. until May.) The first shows that Hugh Grant’s prime minister is well acquainted with Drake’s discography. 
 
 The second shows what happens when one is well acquainted with Drake’s discography. . . and not 10 Downing Street’s steps. (Even after all of these years, we know.) 
 
 The third shows that Thomas Brodie-Sangster’s Sam is not in jail for blowing past multiple airport security checkpoints to meet Olivia Olson’s character. 
 
 In a statement, Love Actually writer/director Richard Curtis explained of the follow-up’s format, “I would never have dreamt of writing a sequel to Love Actually, but I thought it might be fun to do 10 minutes to see what everyone is now up to. Who has aged best?—I guess that's the big question. . .or is it so obviously Liam [Neeson]?” 
 
 In a behind-the-scenes video released last week, Hugh Grant joked that he has been refusing annual invitations for Love Actually reunions for years. 
 
 “This nightmare with Richard happens every bloody year,” Grant deadpanned. (Love Actually writer/director Richard Curtis is the long-time romantic partner of Red Nose Day’s director Emma Freud—which might explain why Curtis & the Love Actually Co. were tempted to reunite in the past.) 
 
 “Some years I can fob him off with money,” Grant says. “‘I’m not doing that. Here’s a check.’” 
 
 Not everyone was as much of a Love Actually grinch, though. McCutcheon had a more rom-com appropriate response to the news that there would be a reunion: “My heart—there was a little skip, a little jump.” 
 
 Stateside fans can watch the complete Love Actually reunion when it airs on May 25 on NBC. 
 
 Do you have what it takes? 
 
 Test your knowledge of the Seven Kingdoms with Vanity Fair ’s Game of Unknowns. 
 
 Make your predictions
– Love Actually fans went nuts when it was announced that a 12-minute sequel would air during the UK's Red Nose Day as part of its Comic Relief special last Friday. The spot doesn't officially air in the US until May, but this being 2017 and all, video snippets and recaps abound. And, well, bad news for those aforementioned fans—many people say the Love Actually bit was not so great. Spoilers ahead: On Cracked, Amanda Mannen writes that the sequel "destroys" the original movie. You find out that Mark apparently hasn't seen his one-time best friend Peter at all in the 13 years since he declared his love for Peter's new bride in the film, then-little-boy Sam never did move on from Joanna and may in fact have creepily followed her to the United States, and Jamie and Aurelia still don't speak one another's languages. Bottom line? "Love actually is more complicated than a slightly overlong Christmas movie, and that's kind of terrifying." At the Mirror, Adam Postans describes the sequel bit as "a poor man’s Four Weddings and a Funeral that ­delivered precisely nothing." At the Guardian, Barbara Ellen suggests the sequel should have been named Guff Actually. "It was all lousy jokes and texted-in performances and looked as though it had been cobbled together by fourth formers as an end-of-term project," she writes. Another Guardian reviewer, Peter Bradshaw, calls the spot "bafflingly weak." He does note that, as to the inevitable question of who aged the best, it's clearly Martine McCutcheon, who played the prime minister's wife—"she genuinely doesn't look any different from 2003." The sequel has taught us that "if you get together in Christmas 2003, you will stay together forever. It’s just science," writes Anna Leszkiewicz at the New Statesman. "Even if you’ve spent nearly 14 years clinging onto public office. Even if you were a literal child when you met. Even if you hate your wife so much you refuse to learn her first language." But not everyone was disappointed. Radio Times calls the sketch "funny" and "poignant," the Telegraph calls it "winningly nostalgic and a triumphant return," and Vanity Fair and RTE round up tweets from satisfied viewers (who especially loved Hugh Grant dancing again).