BBC stars pull out stops for Pudsey

chris

The BBC's big guns pulled out all the stops for Children in Need in a bid to try and smash last year's fundraising total of £37 million.

Friday's television event, hosted by Terry Wogan and Fearne Cotton and themed "Doing Something Different", saw both viewers and stars encouraged to go outside of their normal routine to raise money.

To that end, the evening's entertainment involved the cast of The Bill performing a medley of Blues Brothers hits including, appropriately, Jailhouse Rock, while performing an elaborate dance routine in various police scenarios.

Another highlight was Terry Wogan's lumbering attempt to beat Tess Daly in the Strictly Come Dancing dance-off which judge Bruno Tonioli described, charitably, as "a good performance for radio". Needless to say, it was Daly who claimed the Pudsey Cup.

The cast of Coronation Street, meanwhile, got into the spirit of things by taking some expert fashion advice from How To Look Good Naked's Gok Wan, who 'Did Something Different' in turn by dressing in drag.

McFly kicked off the show at 7pm, singing the official single for this year's event, Stay With Me and Do Ya.

There were also due to be performances from Take That, Girls Aloud, the Sugababes, Leon Jackson, the Stereophonics, Alesha Dixon, Razorlight, John Barrowman, Il Divo, Jason Donovan and Russell Watson among others.

The stars of EastEnders did their bit for Britain's disadvantaged children, performing a string of popular showtunes from musicals including Moulin Rouge, My Fair Lady, Saturday Night Fever and Mary Poppins.

The audience were given a world exclusive of the new Oliver! Musical with Jodie Prenger and Fagin's gang, and Take That did something not so different with a live performance of their current hit, Greatest Day.

The total amount of money raised at 10pm was £11,461,855; up by £532,923 at the same time last year.


Source: ThePressAssociation