Published: 14 November 2025
Pudsey and pals are back to bring autumn cheer, heart and sparkle to living rooms across the nation with Children in Need’s 2025 Appeal Night on Friday 14 November.
Hosts, Mel Giedroyc, Rochelle Humes, Vernon Kay, Paddy McGuinness, Lenny Rush and Big Zuu will lead the much cherished Appeal Night, presenting a jam-packed evening of sketches, performances, and special moments – with the sole aim of raising life-changing funds for children and young people across the UK, and viewers will also get the opportunity to meet some of the young people who are helped by BBC Children in Need.
Calling on the nation to come together, everyone is invited to get involved and donate to help make a difference to the lives of children and young people in communities across the UK. Money raised will help the charity ensure there’s someone able to give food, clothes and beds to a child living without; someone qualified to talk to a child who is anxious, isolated or grieving; someone trained to mentor teenagers in communities facing inequality, violence or lack of opportunity; someone to be there for children living with serious illness, disability or carrying a load that’s just too heavy to manage alone.
When is Children in Need 2025 on TV and BBC iPlayer?
Watch the Children in Need 2025 Appeal night live on BBC One and BBC iPlayer at 7pm on Friday 15 November.
Children in Need 2025 Presenters
L-R: Paddy McGuinness, Mel Giedroyc, Lenny Rush, Big Zuu, Rochelle Humes, Vernon Kay
Your hosts for the evening are Mel Giedroyc, Rochelle Humes, Vernon Kay, Paddy McGuinness, Lenny Rush and Big Zuu, who’ve been telling us all about their favourite Children in Need moments and memories.
Children in Need 2025 Sketches
Viewers can expect to see an Apprentice rarity, when the tables are turned on Lord Sugar as he faces a boardroom grilling from a tough new set of junior apprentices, and viewers will also get an exclusive taster of the highly anticipated festive episodes of The Celebrity Apprentice: Christmas Specials – where 12 celebrity candidates have been challenged with creating festive biscuits for BBC Children in Need.
Read more: Lord Sugar to be interrogated by mini apprentices as Lenny Rush and Pudsey organise kids takeover of the BBC for Children in Need
BAFTA-winning TV chef and musician, Big Zuu, will take to the CBeebies Bedtime Story chair for a very special BBC Children in Need episode, and he won’t be reading alone.
In a CBeebies Bedtime Story first, Big Zuu will be joined by Pudsey Bear, along with a group of children from a Children in Need funded theatre and arts project at Z-arts in Manchester, who will help him bring the story to life.
BAFTA winning actor and BBC Children in Need presenter, Lenny Rush and Pudsey have been promoted to the roles of high flying telly executives, and they have been charged with putting children at the heart of all programming at the BBC. What could go wrong?
Lenny gets to work straight away. Deciding that the BBC needs much younger faces at the heart of its programming, he arranges an “epic Gladiators takeover” with a new class of mini, but mighty, Gladiators entering the arena as fresh new substitutes for their grown up counterparts, Bionic, Giant, Nitro, Fire, Athena and Diamond.
And the Gladiators aren’t the only BBC faces dealing with competition from much younger contenders. Gladiators host, Bradley Walsh faces off against his own ‘mini me’, BBC Newsreader, Sophie Raworth gets quite the shock as her news desk experiences a mini invasion; Over at the Queen Vic, Shane Richie realises that some iconic EastEnders have turned back time; and UEFA Women’s Euro 2025 champion Lionesses, Ella Toone and Alessia Russo find themselves in a unique and highly memorable BBC Sport interview!
Audiences will be able to watch McFly’s Tom Fletcher, perform for the first time ever alongside his 11 year old son. The duo will be accompanied by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra as they perform Thread of Hope.
The song was written by Tom especially for Pudsey and the Thread of Hope – a new 25-minute animated film for CBeebies, coming to BBC One and BBC iPlayer this December. The film focuses on themes of connection and togetherness, with the aim of bringing people closer. It is hoped that audiences will experience this too – creating special moments for families to come together, watch, and enjoy.
Remember Monday, who represented the United Kingdom at Eurovision this year, will be performing a very special cover of Perfect Day with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Testimonies of young people who have benefited from BBC Children In Need will be included in this incredibly heartwarming and emotional composition, demonstrating the life-changing impact that the charity has had – and continues to have – for so many.
And there will also be an extra special music performance from BBC Children in Need supporter, Lewis Capaldi.
A much loved and cherished element of the Appeal Night, the BBC Children in Need Choir will perform a wonderful arrangement of Coldplay’s Yellow – Pudsey’s favourite colour. The choir will feature 16 children from across the 15 BBC nations and regions, all of whom have been supported by BBC Children in Need funded projects.
Sara’s Great Northern Marathon Challenge
Assuming (and hoping) all goes well, Radio 2’s Sara Cox will arrive at the Salford studio, having completed her gruelling 135 mile challenge, ready to find out how much she’s raised after taking on the distance of five marathons across five days.
Starting on the Monday of Children in Need week, Sara’s Great Northern Marathon Challenge has seen her run, jog, and walk through sweeping moorland, steep ridges, and the rolling hills of Northumberland, Durham, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire, all while carrying a very special Pudsey Bear backpack.
Throughout the night, appeal films will feature some of the children and young people whose lives have been changed through the support of BBC Children in Need.
And there are even more pawsome surprises on the way, but bear with us as Pudsey will reveal more details in due course. All we can say for now, is please be prepared to be furry excited.
The One Show’s Challenge Squad
The One Show Challenge Squad are a group of inspirational young people, who have been supported by BBC Children in Need and championed by The One Show as they take on personal fundraising challenges.
This year two members of The Challenge Squad will fulfil their personal challenges in front of a studio audience on Appeal Night, with Kat performing a special duet with Sam Ryder, and Eloise throwing herself in to a musical theatre challenge, on skates with the cast of Starlight Express.
Throughout the night, appeal films will feature some of the children and young people whose lives have been changed through the support of BBC Children in Need.
And there are even more pawsome surprises on the way, but bear with us as Pudsey will reveal more details in due course. All we can say for now, is please be prepared to be furry excited…
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