The BBC's charity and annual telethon, established in 1980. As the name implies, it is dedicated to children and to rectifying "child issues" (child abuse, bullying, youth homelessness, underage prostitution, etc.). Its mascot is a mute yellow teddy bear called Pudsey, with a polka dot handkerchief-bandage tied round one side of his head, covering one of his eyes.
The yearly TV telethon airs in the late autumn on BBC One and involves special musical performances by pop stars, and West-End casts (and, recently, the BBC Newsreaders). It also includes skits and spoofs like Comic Relief, although the focus is more on light entertainment than actual comedy. It is one of the few events where programmes from "the other side" will take part (the cast of The Bill are game for a lot of things). Includes an annual charity single.
The BBC News goes in the middle, separating the show into a family-friendly and not-so-family friendly part. This is usually opposite a special edition of a Panel Game on BBC Two.
After Doctor Who successfully revived, the BBC has twice made seven-minute shorts to be aired during Children in Need. The first was a transition from "The Parting of the Ways" to "The Christmas Invasion" (2005); the second, "Time Crash" (2007) is a meeting of the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) and the Fifth Doctor (Peter Davison) which also explains the transition from "Last of the Time Lords" to "Voyage of the Damned". In 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010 and the entirety of the Twelfth Doctor's run from 2014 to 2017 they instead aired excerpts from the upcoming Christmas Specials. In 2011 this was preceded by blatant fanservice
. 2012 saw "The Great Detective", a short exploring the Doctor's emotional state between "The Angels Take Manhattan" and "The Snowmen", while 2013 had an excerpt of "The Day of the Doctor". Segments for the Thirteenth Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) live up to the name "Children in Need": 2018 had a non-fiction short where Whittaker brings a young fan with cystic fibrosis on a tour of the TARDIS set and 2019 saw her make a surprise appearance live on stage and in costume to meet another young fan.
They'd previously done one in 1993 ("Dimensions in Time", written off as non-canon by the Doctor Who Expanded Universenote and much later by "Army of Ghosts"note .) to celebrate the show's 30th Anniversary. Due to contract thingies, this will probably never be aired again or turn up on DVD... not that the fans would mind. The 20th Anniversary special "The Five Doctors" aired on the night in 1983.
This telethon is best watched recorded and with liberal use of the Fast-Forward button.
This telethon series contains examples of:
- Air Guitar: In the Medley, Andy Pandy does this while the Wombles are rocking out on their real guitars.
- Big Eater: In the medley, Sir Topham Hatt is shown gorging himself on doughnuts while everyone else is singing.
- Black Comedy: In the medley, Big Chris briefly tries to cut the strings holding up Parker from Thunderbirds with scissors.
- Charity Motivation Song:
- Their cover of "Perfect Day" by Lou Reed. Featuring Reed, David Bowie, Elton John, and many other singers performing a line or two.
- The BBC Children in Need Medley was basically a "who's who" of the British cartoon industry, with some American toons as well. It featured Roary the Racing Car, Fifi and the Flowertots, The Wombles, In the Night Garden..., Angelina Ballerina, Scooby-Doo, Bagpuss, Bob the Builder, Ben 10, Thunderbirds, Postman Pat, SpongeBob SquarePants, Fireman Sam, Camberwick Green, Thomas & Friends, Pingu, Teletubbies, The Sooty Show, The Koala Brothers, Peppa Pig, Rubbadubbers, and Paddington amongst others, singing a variety of songs mashed together.
- Cool Shades: Paddington wears these in the Medley.
- Crossover: Not on crack, but a bath full of baked beans (i.e., intensely silly), such as:
- Doctor Who/EastEnders (the aforementioned "Dimensions In Time")
- Top Gear/Ashes to Ashes (2008)
- For a short period of time, opposite the news, Have I Got Buzzcocks All Over before the third part of that was canned. This slot is now usually filled by a Very Special Episode of QI.
- Peter Kay's Animated All-Star Band; a Massive Multiplayer Crossover of nearly every significant British Stop Motion kids' cartoon (with a few 2D British and American cartoons being shown on TV screens with "Live via Satellite" on, most likely to avoid serious Medium Blending), doing "The Official BBC Children in Need Medley" as a charity single.
- The 2010 edition gave us EastStreet.
- In 2011, Dragons' Apprentice.
- Crowd Song: The end of the medley has the entire cast joining in for a rendition of The Beatles' "Hey Jude" and Elbow's "One Day Like This".
- Distaff Counterpart: In 2009, Pudsey was joined by his 'best friend', a female brown bear called Blush, who wears a bow made from the same spotty material as Pudsey's eyepatch. She's still not actually used much outside of
The Merch though.
- Go-Karting with Bowser: In the medley, the heroes casually sing and dance with Stingo from Fifi and the Flowertots, the Big Bad of that show.
- Littlest Cancer Patient: Pudsey, symbolically.
- Medium Blending: Although the 2D characters like Scooby-Doo and SpongeBob SquarePants are shown on screens in the Medley, the song shows live-action characters like Thunderbirds and Teletubbies alongside stop-motion characters like Bob the Builder.
- Medley: The BBC Children in Need Medley is a mashup of "Can You Feel It", "Don't Stop", "Jai Ho!", "Tubthumping", "Never Forget", "Hey Jude", and "One Day Like This".
- One of the Girls: In the medley, when Fifi, Wendy, Marsha, Primrose, Penny, Big Christine, and Nisha perform "Jai Ho!", Nisha's husband Ajay joins their flash mob, much to the disapproval of Bob, Big Chris, Mr. Carburettor, Sam, Elvis, Steele, Pat, Virgil, Parker, and Brains. Ajay realizes his mistake and joins the guys for their performance of "Tubthumping".
