BBC Children in Need is a registered charity. According to its 2012 Annual Report, "The very first BBC appeal for children was a five minute radio broadcast on Christmas Day 1927, with the proceeds shared equally between five prominent children's charities of the time. The first televised appeal was the 1955 Children's Hour Christmas Appeal, with Sooty and Harry Corbett. In 1980, the appeal was broadcast in a new telethon format, hosted by Terry Wogan, Sue Lawley and Esther Rantzen. The telethon captured the public's imagination and the amount raised increased dramatically, breaking £1 million for the first time. The telethon is now in its 33rd year and up to and including 2011 it has raised over £650 million for disadvantaged children and young people living in the UK."
Wikipedia gives a "broadcast total" of exactly one million pounds for that first broadcast, with a "total raised" of £1,000,587. In 2018 (according to Wikipedia) the broadcast total was £50,595,053 and the total raised was exactly 58 million pounds. The broadcast total fell to £47,886,382 in 2019, and to £37,032,789 in COVID–affected 2020; no "total raised" is (yet) given for either of these years.
2019 was not the first year that the total had fallen, and nor was this the biggest drop up to that date (in either percentage or absolute terms – although it was surpassed in 2020). In 1992, after being around £17.2 million for two of the previous three years (the 1990 total not being given by Wikipedia), the broadcast total fell to £11.55 million; and it stayed between £11.5 and 12.5 million for the next eight years. Since 2001 it had risen steadily (apart from a slight fall in 2010 – possibly as the credit crisis took hold), breaking £50 million for the first time in 2017.
© Haydn Thompson 2021