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Matt Lucas to release ‘Thank You Baked Potato’ to raise funds to feed NHS staff

Matt Lucas is set to release his updated version of his ‘Baked Potato Song’, now titled ‘Thank You Baked Potato’, with the proceeds going to his charity FeedNHS.
The British comedian-and-writer previously performed the track on the BBC comedy quiz show ‘Shooting Stars’, which was presented by double act Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer, two decades ago.
And the ‘Little Britain’ co-creator’s new version comes with an important reminder of the government’s guidelines on shielding yourself and others from the coronavirus.
The track was shared on Lucas’ Twitter last week, and has already received over three million views.
He captioned the post: "A VERY important message.
"Wash your hands, stay indoors, thank you baked potato. Only go to grocery stores, thank you baked potato".
He commented: "’The Baked Potato Song’ was something I sung on ‘Shooting Stars’ 20 years ago and in an idle moment on Tuesday night I rewrote the lyrics and updated them.
"Baked Potato is always giving good advice and the new advice in the new version of the song is about washing your hands, staying indoors and only going to grocery stores. I urge everyone to go out and buy the single this week and raise vital money for the FeedNHS campaign."
The funnyman joined forces with actor Damian Lewis his wife Helen McCrory and the owner of natural fast food chain LEON on the FeedNHS campaign, which hopes to raise £1 million to give 6,000 meals a day to NHS workers at hospitals on the front line fighting the respiratory disease.
A statement on their JustGiving page reads: "Hi we’re Damian, Helen and Matt and we’re attempting to raise 1 million pounds to get hot meals to NHS staff on the front line.
"Some of our heroes are already working 20 hour shifts and these hours will only get longer as the crisis worsens. With cafes and eateries all shut there is a real need to get healthy hot food to the hospitals.
"We are spearheading a campaign with LEON to get 6,000 meals a day into London hospitals for critical care staff and then hopefully across the nation to feed the NHS. The aim is that everyone will get one hot meal a day. We are starting this initiative in partnership with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and UCLH Healthcare NHS Trust and hope others will be inspired to roll it out across the nation."
They added: "This is a not for profit movement to deliver food to our heroic workers and already Wasabi, Tortilla, Peach Pubs, Rosa Thai, Hop, Pizza Pilgrims, Franco Manca, Farmer J, Tossed, Haché, Abokado, Dishoom and Nusa Kitchen have joined.
"No one’s making any money out of this and any profits will go back into the NHS, so please give generously to help #FEEDNHS."
‘Thank You Baked Potato’ is available to pre-save on Spotify now and donations can be made via the JustGiving page here:
www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/FeedNHS