What started out as the first group training session for John Bishop, Davina McCall, Denise Lewis and Freddie Flintoff (the rowers in the next BT Sport Relief Challenge: Bishop's Week Of Hell) soon turned into a mass plea for help.

 

After a morning of arduous training in choppy waters off the coast off Hayling Island,  the celebrity team were told that the French authorities currently won't give them permission to row from Calais to Dover next week. 

 

But determined not to allow their hard work to fall by the wayside, they decided to take matters into their own hand and called on their followers on Twitter to help them out.

 

Davina was the first in line tweeting 'OMG... after all our hard work we have been told by the French that we can't leave from Calais... Help! anyone got any pull with the French?'

 

And the man who's about to put his body through Hell to raise cash for Sport Relief, John Bishop added 'With Davina, Denise and Freddie and informed the French won't let us row the Channel for @sportrelief. can anyone help?''

 

The team hope that the French authorities will listen to their pleas, grant them permission to cross the Channel from French soil and thus save the challenge from the jeopardy it now faces. 

 

The news came after a very tough morning on the open waters of The Solent  in bitingly cold temperatures. It is the first time that the celebrity team have come together to train for the challenge and they are determined that their efforts won't be in vein.