In need of a make-over. (Children In Need)

Member Name: mreyre

Product:	Children In Need
Date:	20/11/00 (65 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Worth watching, if you want to see minor celebrities do something daft. Raises £12 million quid, which can't be bad.,

Disadvantages: Many minor celebrities doing daft things.

Now, before I start this review - let me say that I think the BBC Children in Need charity is a VERY worthy cause, as a parent and primary school teacher I care for children a great deal, and do see many cases where Children in Need can help greatly. I have donated to this charity in the past, even dressed up in daft costumes, and supported other friends who have also dressed up or sat in baths of treacle, baked beans, custard, etc, etc.

However, it's not the actual charity that I want to review, it's the TV programme. OK, so the BBC wheel out Terry Wogan from the Broom Cupboard for this and (of course) Eurovision, but I'm sure I'm not being too controversial when I wonder whether a new (and slightly younger??) presenter would be a good idea?
Gaby Roslin is also very similar, though not quite so dire.
I think that for next year, the BBC should consider a change of presenters - Katy Hill is in her prime at the moment - she has completely revived Live and Kicking, or even Phillipa Forrester. The male presenter should be the bloke who presents T4 on Channel 4 (and just about everything else on Channel 4) - he would bring some life into a very dull show.

This year, the highlights of the show should have been the new re-make of "Butterflies"(which I was really looking forward to) and the Question of Sport vs Pop Quiz. Both seemed like a good idea at the time, but were completely pointless and simply un-funny. Perhaps the Beeb are saving their funny sketches for Comic Relief. (or maybe not).

Really, the whole show needs a complete re-vamp - the idea of Class "B" list celebrities prancing around on a stage (ie. Vannessa "size 12" Feltz and Jemery Spake) is not my idea of entertainment. At least Mel C and Martine McEastenders turned up, but didn't do anything particularly special. Sharlene and Texas also did us a turn, but again, the performance fell quite flat.

The items that re
ally get on my "wick" are the "O.B.'s", ie. Outside Broadcasts, where they flick around the regions. This year, we had a silly woman wearing Pudsey Bear deely boppers asking people how much they'd raised.

Example conversation from Live Broadcast:
Silly woman; "Oooh, you have a big cheque for us then"
Bloke with big cheque: "Really, I wondered what this uneccessarily large bit of cardboard was in my hand."
(Meanwhile old lady walks across camera obliterating our view, people in audience scream so you can't hear the presenter)
Silly woman: "So, what did you do to raise your £1.78 then?"
Bloke: "I ate as many prunes / grains of rice / baked beans / cockles (delete as appropriate) as I could in half an hour....etc...
(Before we hand back to studio, camera pans to audience holding "Hello Mum" signs, there follows a painful 1 minute silence while someone back at Broadcasting House finds the right button to press, cue Terry...)

A whole 5 hours of this and £12 million quid later. At one point this year, I actually pledged £20 quid to make some band or other STOP playing. I've heard better music from my neighbour's cat.

Come on BBC, revive this show in time for next year.!

Summary: