A Record-Breaking Children In Need

They’ve done it again! The British public have beaten all previous records, raising a staggering £18.3m in the 27th BBC Children In Need Appeal on BBC One. Performances from McFly, Girls Aloud, Jamiroquai, Keane and All Saints, the casts of Holby City, Two Pints, Hollyoaks and many more inspired the public to pledge the money which beat last year’s record-breaking on-the-night total which was just over the £17million mark.

And there is still more to come as the public continue to send in all the money raised from fundraising events across the UK in a bid to beat £33.2 million raised in 2005.

Terry Wogan, Natasha Kaplinksy and Fearne Cotton presented the seven-hour broadcasting marathon, the BBC’s biggest broadcasting event which links BBC centres all over the country, live from Television Centre.

In the studio highlights of the evening included the BBC Newsreaders tribute to Bond which saw Huw Edwards as Blofeld, Dermot Murnaghan, Jeremy Bowen and Bill Turnbull all taking a turn as James Bond, Peter Sissons as an exasperated Q and Natasha Kaplinsky, Sophie Raworth, Fiona Bruce and Kate Silverton as very glamorous Bond girls.

Richard Fleeshman sang his rendition of the classic Mr Bojangles and the cast of The Sound of Music performed Do-Ray-Mi in their first TV performance after receiving rave reviews for the new West End Show. Outside Girls Aloud, Keane, Jamiroquai were amongst those who braved the rain in a spectacular concert hosted by Radio 1’s Chris Moyles.

The Celebrity Scissorhands stylists got their hands on Ralf Little who donned paper pants for a tanning session. And as part of the climax of Celebrity Scissorhands, Steve Strange set a new world record of the number of heads shaved in an hour with a new amazing total of 34. He was half way through his 35th shaving when the final whistle blew but finished the client off anyway. "Steve Strange has done 35 decent haircuts today," quipped Academy manager Lee Stafford.

David Ramsden, Acting Chief Executive of BBC Children in Need said:

“We are absolutely delighted that people across the UK have been more generous than everbefore and we’ve raised record amounts, Every penny will be used to make a real difference to the lives of disadvantaged children and young people in the UK.”

And BBC Radio 2 listeners raised a fantastic £2,174, 527 including £512, 450 raised in Terry’s Money Can’t Buy auction. The highest bid was for £47,000 to travel to Finland and see the Eurovision Song Contest 2007 filmed with Wogan.

The biggest single donation of the night came from The Hunter Foundation who donated £1m which was miraculously matched by viewers within the space of half an hour.

The Final “On the Night” Total was: £18, 300,392

The regional totals were:

N. Ireland: 351,694
Scotland: 942,079
Wales: 715,884
West Midlands: 550,667
East Midlands: 385,909
East: 847,129
North West: 1,482,663
North: 419,588
Humberside: 138,459
North East and Cumbria: 260,819
West: 537,952
South: 450,788
South West: 275,996
London: 1,139,167
South East: 400,261
Total Regions: 8,899,054

Don’t forget, donations can still be made on 0845 733 2233 and at bbc.co.uk/pudsey.