Children in Need

BBC Children in Need (also promoted as Plant Mewn Angen in Wales) is the BBC's UK charity. Since 1980 it has raised over £600 million to change the lives of disabled children and young people in the UK. One of the highlights is an annual telethon, held in November and televised on BBC One, BBC One HD, BBC Two, and BBC Two HD from 7:30 pm until 2 am. "Pudsey Bear" is BBC Children in Need's mascot, whilst Terry Wogan was a long-standing host.

BBC Children in Need is one of three high-profile British telethons, although the only charity belonging to the BBC, the other telethons being Red Nose Day and Sport Relief, both supporting the Comic Relief charity. Following the closure of Television Centre, the 2013 telethon took place at the BBC's Elstree Studios on Friday 15 November.

History

Earlier BBC appeals

The BBC's first broadcast charity appeal took place in 1927, in the form of a five-minute radio broadcast on Christmas Day. It raised about £1,143, which equates to about £27,150 by today's standards, and was donated to four children's charities. The first televised appeal took place in 1955 and was called the Children's Hour Christmas Appeal, with the yellow glove puppet Sooty Bear and Harry Corbett fronting it. The Christmas Day Appeals continued on TV and radio until 1979. During that time a total of £625,836 was raised. Terry Wogan first appeared during this five-minute appeal in 1978, and again in 1979. Sometimes cartoon characters such as Peter Pan and Tom and Jerry were used.

Peter Kay

Peter John Kay (born 2 July 1973) is an English comedian and actor. His last stand-up comedy tour was officially inaugurated into the Guinness World Records as the most successful of all time, playing to over 1.2 million people. He has written, produced, and acted in several award winning television and film projects. In addition, he has authored three books. In 2015, he starred in BBC sitcoms Peter Kay's Car Share and Cradle to Grave.

Career

Peter Kay was born and brought up in Farnworth, Lancashire, where he attended St Ethelbert's R.C. School, then Mount St Joseph High School, leaving with one GCSE in art. He took several menial jobs, including working in a toilet roll factory, a Netto supermarket, a cash and carry, and a bingo hall, which later inspired episodes for That Peter Kay Thing. He began a degree course at the University of Liverpool but dropped out because he was given an unconditional offer to attend a Higher National Diploma (HND) in media performance at the University of Salford. He then attended the University of Salford's school of media, music and performance, where he studied for an HND in Media Performance, which he completed; this involved a stand-up course.

Child

Biologically, a child (plural: children) is a human between the stages of birth and puberty. The legal definition of child generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger than the age of majority.

Child may also describe a relationship with a parent (such as sons and daughters of any age) or, metaphorically, an authority figure, or signify group membership in a clan, tribe, or religion; it can also signify being strongly affected by a specific time, place, or circumstance, as in "a child of nature" or "a child of the Sixties".

There are many social issues that affect children, such as childhood education, bullying, child poverty, dysfunctional families, child labor, and in developing countries, hunger. Children can be raised by parents, by fosterers, guardians or partially raised in a day care center.

Legal, biological, and social definitions

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child defines child as "a human being below the age of 18 years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier". This is ratified by 192 of 194 member countries. In U.S. Immigration Law, a child refers to anyone who is under the age of 21.

Need

A need is something that is necessary for an organism to live a healthy life. Needs are distinguished from wants in that, in the case of a need, a deficiency causes a clear adverse outcome: a dysfunction or death.

Needs can be objective and physical, such as the need for food, or subjective and psychological, such as the need for self-esteem.

There are also needs of a social or societal nature.

Needs and wants are a matter of interest in, and form a common substrate for, the fields of philosophy, biology, psychology, social science, and politics.

Psychological definition

To most psychologists, need is a psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a goal, giving purpose and direction to behavior.

The most widely known academic model of needs was proposed by psychologist Abraham Maslow. His theory proposed that people have a hierarchy of psychological needs, which range from security to self-actualization. However, while intuitively appealing, this model has been difficult to operationalize experimentally. It was developed further by Clayton Alderfer.

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is the public service broadcaster of the United Kingdom, headquartered at Broadcasting House in London.

The BBC is the world's oldest national broadcasting organisation and the largest broadcaster in the world by number of employees, with over 20,950 staff in total, of whom 16,672 are in public sector broadcasting; including part-time, flexible as well as fixed contract staff, the total number is 35,402.

The BBC is established under a Royal Charter and operates under its Agreement with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. Its work is funded principally by an annual television licence fee which is charged to all British households, companies, and organisations using any type of equipment to receive or record live television broadcasts. The fee is set by the British Government, agreed by Parliament, and used to fund the BBC's extensive radio, TV, and online services covering the nations and regions of the UK. From 1 April 2014, it also funds the BBC World Service, launched in 1932, which provides comprehensive TV, radio, and online services in Arabic, and Persian, and broadcasts in 28 languages.