I never know quite what to make of Children in Need. Simplistically it’s simply a fund-raiser to help children in variety of ways shapes and forms. And nobody can argue with that.
But there are the other elements of it, that I always find uncomfortable. It’s notable that Channel 4 always gives its comedy programmes a week off when Children in Need is on. This time around it ran Four Weddings and a Funeral.
Then there are the big cheques from large corporations – supermarkets and the like – that all have the companies names on them. With the cancellation of the Jonathan Ross show, bands and artists with their Christmas releases out, have nothing much beyond GMTV or This Morning to appear from. So Children in Need this year gets a big name line-up. They’re all doing it for the kids you understand, and not to remind people who only buy one new CD a year that their new albums are in shops now.
Certainly the various soaps compete to outdo one another with either musical numbers or bizarre crossovers with other shows. And then there’s the regular news readers song and dance number. They’re harmless enough.
But we get West End musicals that helpfully all advertise their availability (do theatre audiences get short-changed on Children in Need night, or do they all hop on limo-bikes to W12?).
I know I always sound like I’m some kind of anti-charity person, and Children in Need is in no way as bad as Comic Relief in the way that commercial sponsors get thirty seconds on the BBC (that truly is outrageous, and I really hope it changes next time around), but I still get a little uncomfortable at the commercial aspects.