Children in Need

***BBC Children in Need*** (also promoted as ''***Plant Mewn Angen''*** in Wales) is the BBC's UK charity. Since 1980 it has raised over £1 billion for disadvantaged children and young people in the UK. When adjusting for the year 2020's inflation this totals £1,493,556,399 from 1980-2019.

One of the highlights is an annual telethon, held in November and televised on BBC One and BBC Two from 7:30 pm until 2:30 am. "Pudsey Bear" is BBC Children in Need's mascot, whilst Sir Terry Wogan was its long-standing host for 35 years. A prominent annual event in British television, Children in Need is one of three high-profile British telethons. It is the only charity belonging to the BBC, the other telethons being Red Nose Day and Sport Relief, both supporting Comic Relief.

Following the temporary closure of Television Centre, the telethon broadcasts take place at the BBC Elstree Centre.

## History

### Earlier BBC appeals

The BBC's first broadcast charity appeal took place in 1927, in the form of a five-minute radio broadcast on Christmas Day, It raised about £1,342, which equates to about £69,950 by today's standards, and was donated to four children's charities. The first televised appeal took place in 1955 and was called the *Children's Hour* Christmas Appeal, with the yellow glove puppet Sooty Bear and Harry Corbett fronting it. The Christmas Day Appeals continued on TV and radio until 1979. During that time a total of £625,836 was raised. Terry Wogan first appeared during this five-minute appeal in 1978 and again in 1979. Sometimes cartoon characters such as Peter Pan and Tom and Jerry were used.

### BBC Children in Need

In 1980, the first Children in Need telethon was broadcast. It was a series of short segments linking the evening's programming instead of the usual continuity. It was devoted to raising money exclusively destined for charities working with children in the United Kingdom. The new format, presented by Terry Wogan, Sue Lawley and Esther Rantzen, saw a dramatic increase in public donations: £1 million was raised that year. The format was developed throughout the 1980s to the point where the telethon segments grew longer and the regular programming diminished, eventually being dropped altogether from 1984 in favour of a single continuous programme. This format has grown in scope to incorporate further events broadcast on radio and online. As a regular presenter, Wogan had become firmly associated with the annual event, continuing to front it until 2014. This was because in the following year, he started to battle ill health from which he died in 2016.

In 1988, BBC Children in Need became a registered charity (number 802052) in England and Wales, followed by registration in Scotland (SC039557) in 2008.

## Sir Terry Wogan Fundraiser of the Year Award

An award called the Sir Terry Wogan Fundraiser of the Year has been presented since 2016 to someone who has gone above and beyond to help raise money for Children in Need. The award was set up by Terry's family and was presented by Terry's son, Mark, at the 2016 telethon in memory of the late Sir Terry Wogan. Joanna Lumley awarded it to Ellie and Abbie Holloway during the 2017 telethon.

 **2019** | Austin and Esther Atkins

## Telethon

### Acts

The telethon features performances from many top singers and groups, with many celebrities also appearing on the 6 1/2 hour long programme performing various activities such as sketches or musical numbers. Featured celebrities often include those from programmes on rival network ITV, including some appearing in-character, and/or from the sets of their own programmes. A performance by BBC newsreaders became an annual fixture. Stars of newly opened West End musicals regularly perform a number from their show later in the evening after "curtain call" in their respective theatres big bombs.

### Broadcast

The BBC devotes the entire night's programming on its flagship channel BBC One to the Children in Need telethon, with the exception of 35 minutes at 10 o'clock while BBC News at Ten, Weather and Regional News airs, and activity continues on BBC Two with special programming, such as *Mastermind Children in Need*, which is a form of *Celebrity Mastermind*, with four celebrities answering questions on a chosen subject and on general knowledge. In recent years, before the telethon itself, the BBC has broadcast Children in Need specials including *DIY SOS The Big Build*, *Bargain Hunt*, *The One Show*, in which hosts Matt Baker and Alex Jones did a rickshaw challenge and a celebrity version of *Pointless* in which Pudsey assists hosts Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman.

Unlike the other BBC charity telethon Comic Relief, Children in Need relies a lot on the BBC regions for input into the telethon night. The BBC English regions all have around 5–8-minute round-ups every hour during the telethon. This does not interrupt the schedule of items shown from BBC Television Centre as the presenters usually hand over to the regions, giving those in the main network studio a short break. However BBC Scotland, BBC Wales and BBC Northern Ireland opted out of the network schedule with a lot of local fundraising news and activities from their broadcast area. Usually they went over to the network broadcast at various times of the night, and usually they showed some network items later than when the English regions saw them. This was to give the BBC nations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland a much larger slot than the BBC English regions because the "nations" comprise a distinct audience of the BBC. Usually BBC Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland handed back to network coverage from around 1:00 am on the telethon night. For the 2010 appeal this changed, with Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales deciding not to have their usual opt-outs and instead following the English regions' pattern of having updates every hour.

### Presenters

* Sir Terry Wogan (1980–2014)
* Sue Lawley (1980–82)
* Esther Rantzen (1980–82)
* Gloria Hunniford (1983)
* Sue Cook (1984–95)
* Joanna Lumley (1984; 1988)
* Andi Peters (1992–94)
* Gaby Roslin (1995–2004)
* Fearne Cotton (2005–08; 2010–15)
* Natasha Kaplinsky (2005–06)
* Matt Allwright (2005)
* Chris Moyles (2006)
* Tess Daly (2008–present)
* Alesha Dixon (2008–09; 2011)
* Peter Andre (2009–10)
* Nick Grimshaw (2012–15)
* Zoe Ball (2013)
* Shane Richie (2013–15)
* Rochelle Humes (2015–present)
* Marvin Humes (2015–present)
* Dermot O'Leary (2015)
* Ade Adepitan (2016–present)
* Greg James (2016)
* Graham Norton (2016–present)
* Russell Kane (2016)
* Mel Giedroyc (2017–present)
* Matt Edmondson (2017)
* Rob Beckett (2018)
* Tom Allen (2019–present)

### Overview

* Children in Need 1980 (November 21, 1980) (£1,000,000), (£1,000,587)
* Children in Need 1981 (November 20, 1981)
* Children in Need 1982 (November 26, 1982) (£1,022,300)
* Children in Need 1983 (November 25, 1983) (£1,158,737)
* Children in Need 1984 (November 23, 1984) (£2,264,398)
* Children in Need 1985 (November 22, 1985) (£4,476,780)
* Children in Need 1986 (November 21, 1986) (£5,264,665), (£8,687,607)
* Children in Need 1987 (November 27, 1987) (£13,916,326)
* Children in Need 1988 (November 18, 1988) (£12,950,000), (£21,671,931)
* Children in Need 1989 (November 17, 1989) (£17,213,664), (£21,600,000)
* Children in Need 1990 (November 23, 1990)
* Children in Need 1991 (November 22, 1991) (£17,182,724)
* Children in Need 1992 (November 20, 1992) (£11,549,490), (£16,700,000)
* Children in Need 1993 (November 26, 1993) (£12,386,866), (£17,300,000)
* Children in Need 1994 (November 25, 1994) (£12,012,524)
* Children in Need 1995 (November 24, 1995) (£11,843,308)
* Children in Need 1996 (November 22, 1996) (£11,847,168), (£18,700,000)
* Children in Need 1997 (November 21, 1997) (£12,034,235), (£20,900,000)
* Children in Need 1998 (November 20, 1998) (£11,380,888), (£17,900,000)
* Children in Need 1999 (November 26, 1999) (£11,639,053), (£16,700,000)
* Children in Need 2000 (November 17, 2000) (£12,244,764), (£20,000,000)
* Children in Need 2001 (November 16, 2001) (£12,895,853), (£25,900,000)
* Children in Need 2002 (November 15, 2002) (£13,501,375), (£26,200,000)
* Children in Need 2003 (November 21, 2003) (£15,305,212), (£31,400,000)
* Children in Need 2004 (November 19, 2004) (£17,156,175), (£34,200,000)
* Children in Need 2005 (November 18, 2005) (£17,235,256), (£33,200,000)
* Children in Need 2006 (November 17, 2006) (£18,300,392), (£33,600,000)
* Children in Need 2007 (November 16, 2007) (£19,089,771), (£37,500,000)
* Children in Need 2008 (November 14, 2008) (£20,991,216), (£38,500,000)