Children in Need raises 17 million

The 25th Children in Need telethon appeal raised more than 17 million on Friday night.

17:14 22 November 2004

The 25th Children in Need telethon appeal raised more than 17 million on Friday night, according to the BBC.

This is up from 15.5 million in 2003 and suggests that the record overall total of 30 million raised last year will be broken when all the money is counted this time.

Hundreds of events took place across the country as part of the TV appeal to raise money for disadvantaged children.

In one, a BBC radio DJ broke the world record for the longest on-air marathon, more than 100 hours, and in another, newsreaders Natasha Kaplinsky, Sophie Raworth and Fiona Bruce performed as Bananarama.

Pop stars Girls Aloud, Westlife and Daniel and Natasha Bedingfield performed alongside other stars, including the cast of Coronation Street.

"There's this huge sense of coming together - the whole country comes together and says this is a cause worth supporting," said prime minister Tony Blair, who met some of the children who have been helped by the appeal.

The BBC's first broadcast appeal for children took place on the radio on Christmas Day in 1927. It lasted five minutes and raised 1,143, the equivalent of 27,150 by today's standards.

In 1980 the first televised appeal took place and raised more than 1 million.