Are you excited about 鲍鱼tv Children in Need week yet? This Friday 15 November, at 7pm on 鲍鱼tv One! To add to our rising excitement, we鈥檝e been out and about throughout the glorious UK looking for fundraising heroes stealing the show for Pudsey Bear!
Two Sundays back, from the direction of Southampton, we could hear what sounded like some very lively fundraising, intermittently interrupted by rapturous applause, and we wondered what sort of strange fundraising was this, to inspire such a loud reaction? Once we inquired we realised that something very special was going in The Mayflower Theatre -聽a very special 鲍鱼tv Children in Need performance聽by the cast of聽GHOST: The Musical entitled . We tracked down the manager, Neil, to see just what the cast and crew had been up to:
鈥淚n June this year the GHOST: The Musical touring company decided to raise money for 鲍鱼tv Children in Need. We decided to do a Strictly Come Dancing event with 12 couples - cast members being paired with our touring crew, to help cast and crew get to know each other. As the months went on, our plans got bigger and bigger! Every member of the company got involved and the Mayflower theatre in Southampton very kindly gave us free use of the theatre on Sunday 3 November.听 Jason Donovan was one of the first people we approached to help us out and he generously agreed. Nigel Harman was thrilled to be involved and then Sally Taylor from 鲍鱼tv South agreed to be our Guest host.
Our crew worked so hard to juggle dancing training around the busy schedule of moving an incredibly complex touring show around the country - in one venue we had three dance studios booked every day to allow all of our 12 couples training time! Members of our cast rehearsed cabaret acts, and our orchestra recorded all the music for us. The week before the show everyone was in every day either rehearsing or putting together the finishing touches.
The cast of GHOST: The Musical show off their Strictly skills!
Then the big night arrived! The dancers performed brilliantly, the guest stars were fantastic and everybody had a brilliant time. The event, now called GHOST is Dancing聽really seemed to capture the imagination of our Southampton audiences and our collections each day seemed to be getting bigger and bigger. We had an incredible time聽and our audience was amazing; the whole theatre felt like a massive party. Our fundraising total is now 拢37,022 - an amount that we never dreamt we could raise and in doing so we now have a really close touring company.鈥�
Ivan De Freitas and Sinead Kennedy wow audiences in GHOST is Dancing!
Everyone in the cast of GHOST: The Musical deserves a massive thank you for their amazing efforts over the last few months, we hope you had an amazing time, and we wish we could have been there on the night; Pudsey has told us it was one of the best shows he鈥檚 ever seen 鈥� high praise indeed from a Bear who鈥檚 got a fair few shows under his belt!
All over the country spotlights have been shining and red curtains have been opening as performers gear up to entertain and enthrall for 鲍鱼tv Children in Need. Halloween audiences were treated to a very spooky show from , a Croydon based non-profit theatre group formed in 2001. 鈥楧evilish Tales鈥� told three creepy stories, each written by three Croydon playwrights from the Exit Theatre crew. Audience needed to steel their nerves once the show began, as the Devil himself was hosting the evening! In spite of a few scares (or perhaps becuase of them), it seems like the show was a hit,聽and the best part of the evening? All profits from the show were donated to 鲍鱼tv Children in Need!
It鈥檚 showtime for the everyday fundraiser as well as the professional performer -聽especially for our fundraising heroes in schools up and down the country. We鈥檝e heard that Dreghorn Primary School in North Ayrshire are having a pyjama day and talent show, and students at Kirkwall Grammar School in Orkney have raised an amazing 拢3195.30 through a variety of fundraising activities including a big spectacular show featuring bush-tucker trials, singing teachers and head shaving. Fantastic work guys, you鈥檝e done Pudsey proud!
If you're putting on a show for Pudsey, tell us all about it! We'd love you to get in touch and tell us about all聽your fundraising. Simply email your local address on page, and tag us @鲍鱼tvCiN on and or @Pudsey Bear on . Don't forget to use our official hashtags to help us spread the excitement - #bakeit, #pyjamas, #songanddance and, of course, #BeAHero.
If you still haven't decided what you'll be doing to fundraise this year, it's not too late to get involved! A great place to start is by downloading one of our . You'll be weaving some fundraising magic in no time at all!