Children in Need

BBC Children in Need is the BBC's UK charity dedicated to supporting disadvantaged children and young people across the country. Established in 1980, the organisation has raised more than £1 billion as of 2023 through its fundraising efforts. The charity's flagship event is an annual telethon broadcast usually on the third Friday evening of November on BBC One and BBC Two. Pudsey Bear has served as its mascot, while the late Sir Terry Wogan hosted the event for 35 years. As a cornerstone of British television, Children in Need is one of the UK's two major telethons, alongside Comic Relief's Red Nose Day. It remains the BBC's sole in-house charity. Originally broadcast from the BBC Television Centre, the telethon relocated to the BBC Elstree Centre between 2013 and 2020 following the closure of the former. Historically lasting up to seven hours, the event was streamlined to a three-hour programme (7:00 pm to 10:00 pm) from 2020 onwards. To accommodate family-friendly content, the television watershed is postponed until 11:30 pm on the night of the broadcast. The 2020 telethon, impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, featured a significantly reduced format with just four presenters: Mel Giedroyc, Alex Scott, Chris Ramsey, and Stephen Mangan. Since November 2021, the event has been staged at Dock10, MediaCityUK in Salford. In October 2023, it was announced that Lenny Rush—a children's television star and future Doctor Who actor—would become the first child co-presenter in the charity's history during the 2023 appeal broadcast. In October 2025, it was announced that Paddy McGuinness and TV personality and British rapper Big Zuu would debut in the presenting line-up for the 2025 appeal show.