To think Children in Need is absolutely shit?

[O6bftdff]

Was it always this bad? I haven’t watched it in years and years but remember once looking forward to it. Turned it on tonight and it’s one of the worst things I’ve ever watched. Almost embarrassing.

Yes, she was always wearing a basque and stockings or something similar. It was cringeworthy, obviously after the dirty old man donations

I dated “the man in the bath of baked beans” around 1984 I think😁
It dyed his skin orange for over a week!!

Yes, I remember Terry letching...as did most men up and down the country

I’m from Southampton and always wondered why there would be a local ‘celeb’ in a bath of beans outside a supermarket randomly and this has just made it all make sense! 😂🤦‍♀️

I remember it being something really fun and entertaining. Heartbreaking and at the same time faith in human nature restored by seeing all the money coming in.

We have watched snippets of it over the past few years but give up as but it isn’t entertaining and some of the presenters are dire. We do donate each year through events at the kids’ schools though.

Manipulative? Have a word with yourself and say that to the families who absolutely rely on the donations to fund the organisations and care groups, children’s hospice staff, etc.

We were on it a few years ago so got to go to the live show. There wasn't even a Pudsey bear there, which I thought was odd.

Others ways to give to charity other than the bbc - i resent giving them any of my money for this.

I became physically disabled as an adult, but I've often thought that if I was disabled as a child I would have fucking hated it. It's so fucking patronising 'oh look at this poor child victim'...very ableist.

Lenny Henry didn't "become the face of Comic Relief", he was one of the founders of it. It had nothing to do with the BBC needing a black person to highlight famine in Africa FFS.

I haven’t watched it since I found out Terry Wogan got £££ for hosting it. For some crazy reason I thought the presenters did it out of the kindness of their hearts 😂

It used to be event in our house in the early nineties, we were allowed to stay up late to watch it. We saved coppers in a big jar all year and counted them while we watched the programme and then took them to the bank to donate the next day. I watch it for the nostalgia but it’s not the same without Terry Wogan. I did like the Bluey dance though and it is a worthy cause.

I wonder how the viewing figures compare to previous years?
when I was at primary school (20+ years ago) watching CIN was always exciting and felt like a big event and like everyone was watching. It doesn’t feel the same anymore.

Yes exactly. We sat their cringing at some of it but ultimately I was in tears numerous times. The girl who sang who had lost her dad and the girl whose twin brother developed the awful condition, just heartbreaking. One of the children's special needs playgroups was featured. I volunteered there 40 years ago as a sixth former and it's amazingly still going. brought back some memories and was so moving.

What does this mean, putting no and a question mark at the end of a statement? Are you inviting us to disagree with you? If you wanted agreement wouldn't it be yes at the end? I don't understand this, but I haven't watched CIN because I think it's tedious. I have donated though.

I watched it tonight for the first time in years. It was awful.

Where was the Eastenders cast singing a Queen or Abba mega mix, a cast of a theatre show coming post show to also do a mega mix (guessing the 10pm finish has put an end to that), a sketch where a random celebrity turns up in a sitcom or the switch to your region where some local DJ was sitting in a bath of beans

That was the CIN I remember. Always had a feeling that it was getting closer to Christmas. But tonight was woeful and the only decent thing was the Girls Aloud single that they cut half way through then repeated it at the end

Don't get me started on that Gladiators nonsense…

It was far worse and shorter tonight than I remember - just very short and flat

It's one of those programmes where people with more money ask people with less money to give money to causes that are hopefully "good". As most of us have seen, big charities think "good" is spending on expensive staffing. I prefer supporting smaller local community based charities now.

Why are they still selling all the merchandise and having no uniform days if that’s all it is TV wise? I get times have changed, but it shouldn’t be beyond the BBC to change with them and produce decent entertainment? Or at least something not painful to watch?

I hadn't watched it in years until tonight. It's the ultimate Mandela effect, isn't?! The nation is collectively mistaken that it's not horse-shit. Sure, you expect a few sad VTs and donation requests but where was the entertainment?

I'm not even sure who the target audience is?
Why does it need 5 presenters, under starters orders, gabbling their way through painfully cheesy dialogue? 3 kids looking at Graham Norton, wondering who the fuck he is, as he giggles as side-eyes his way through the segment about crap jokes? And who the hell is tuning in for Girls Aloud these days? The only 'talent' was the Strictly dancers but even this was ruined by a cartoon character being added to a perfectly good routine.

Utter bollocks!

Additionally, it lost a lot of supporters post-2018 because of the alleged grant(s) to Mermaids. (There was already unease about the charity.) A lot of people decided to give to local charities directly.

Someone did an FoI to the BBC about how much money Mermaids had received from CiN but the request was unsuccessful, as the BBC said it was exempt from the FoI Act.

It joke part was so confusing. Who did they think they were entertaining?

I think “back in the day” we didn’t have anywhere near as many choices of what to watch as we do now. Only 4/5 channels unless you had Sky TV (90s). Perhaps that’s why it seemed more bearable back then 😂

I hate all telethon type things. They are emotionally manipulative. Charities are run by entitled middle-class people hauling in a big salary while volunteers do all the hard work, only a small fraction of the money actually goes to the needy.