MUMBAI: UK pubcaster the BBC has announced that its charity Children in Need has raised 19 million pounds.
BBC Children in Need is an annual British charity appeal organised by the BBC. Since 1980 it has raised over ?576 million.
For the uninitiated each year since 1980, the BBC has set aside one evening of programming on its flagship television channel, BBC One, to show events aimed at raising money for charities working with children in the UK. BBC coverage also extends across the BBC‘s other television channels and national and local radio channels.
A mascot called ‘Pudsey‘, a teddy bear with a bandage over one eye, was introduced in 1985 and has become a regular feature. In 2007 Pudsey and the Children in Need logo were redesigned. Children in Need was registered as a charity in 1989.
This year on the BBC One appeal show, performances from The Spice Girls, Kylie, Boyzone, Sugababes, Annie Lennox, Leona Lewis, John Barrowman, Denise Van Outen, the casts of EastEnders, Hollyoaks, Holby City, The Bill, Doctor Who, and many more, inspired the public to support BBC Children in Need and top last year‘s total of ?18.3 million.
The pubcaster adds that there is still more to come as the money continues to pour in from the thousands of fund-raising events already held, or scheduled to happen, right across the UK.
The Do Something Different fundraising theme had events ranging from a 12-hour bhangra-thon, and sailors crossing the Solent in giant hollowed-out pumpkins, to over 50,000 Tartan Army fans lending their voices to a charity record at Hampden Park Stadium.
Terry Wogan presented the seven-hour entertainment marathon along with some help from guest presenters including Fearne Cotton, Angellica Bell, John Barrowman, Sam and Mark, Myleene Klass, Kylie Minogue and X Factor judges Simon Cowell, Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh, in the corporation‘s biggest broadcasting event which links BBC centres all over the country, live from Television Centre in London.
In the studio, highlights of the evening included the BBC Newsreaders‘ cover of the Chicago hit All That Jazz which saw vaudevillian Fiona Bruce joined by Bill Turnbull, Nicholas Owen, Ben Brown, Dermot Murnaghan, Andrew Marr and the cast from Chicago.
Meanwhile, Hotel Babylon got the Sybil Fawlty treatment as Prunella Scales was joined by sitcom alumni Vicki Michelle, June Whitfield, Paul Shane, Frank Thornton, Lesley Joseph and Tony Adams.
The lads from Boyzone delighted their fans by performing together live on the show for the first time in seven years and singing a medley of hits, while Lee Mead was joined by a choir of over 600 children in a nationwide, technicolor singalong of Any Dream Will Do.
On the night, viewers enjoyed live entertainment from BBC studios in Belfast, Cardiff and Glasgow as well as broadcasts from a diverse range of venues around England.
BBC Children in Need CEO David Ramsden says, "We are overwhelmed by the response of the British public tonight and want to say a big thank you to all those who donated or Did Something Different for Pudsey.
"Even more money will pour in over the weeks and months ahead and we will now be looking for great projects around the UK that can make a real difference to young lives."
