The 2008 BBC Children in Need Appeal was on Friday 14 November and raised an incredible £20,991,216 on the night, beating all previous records and taking the total since the telethon began to over half a billion pounds.

The BBC's first broadcast appeal for children was a five-minute radio programme on Christmas Day in 1927. It raised £1,143 18s 3d and the proceeds were shared with four prominent children's charities.

In 1980, the appeal was broadcast on BBC One in a new telethon format, hosted by Terry Wogan with Sue Lawley and Esther Rantzen. It captured the public's imagination to such an extent that the donations increased dramatically and broke the million mark for the very first time.

Pudsey made his television debut in 1985. He was designed by Joanna Ball, who named him after the West Yorkshire town where she was born.

In the two decades which have followed countless cuddly bears have been sold to raise money for the charity, while Pudsey himself has received letters, drawings and emails from youngsters all over the UK and been photographed with more celebrities than he can remember.

The BBC Children in Need Appeal is a charity registered in England and Wales (802052) and Scotland (SC039557) whose mission is to positively change the lives of disadvantaged children and young people in the UK.

The fund-raising activities which take place around the UK in the days and weeks leading up to appeal night combine to create a national event which involves thousands.

The annual telethon continues to be a highlight of the charity's year-long campaign, when the whole BBC joins together to support BBC Children in Need on TV, radio and online.

The 2008 Appeal Show reached a peak audience of 11.4 million and featured an array of musical talent including Take That, Girls Aloud, Boyzone, Sugababes, Alesha Dixon, the BBC Newsreaders, as well as stars of EastEnders, Coronation Street, The Bill, Ashes To Ashes and Masterchef.

The 2008 Children in Need song was performed by McFly, who are donating all profits from a double-A side single featuring Do Ya and a cover of the Seventies hit Stay With Me.

Sir Terry Wogan and Aled Jones' recording of the Bing Crosby and David Bowie classic, Little Drummer Boy/Peace On Earth, will also help raise money for Children in Need.

Radio 2 listeners helped raise £2 million, with one anonymous caller bidding £100,000 in the Auction Of Things Money Can't Buy for a guitar master class with Mark Knopfler, while The One Show's Pennies For Pudsey campaign and the Celebrity Scissorhands on BBC Three, helped drive the total even higher.

The charity is also upported by a number of corporate partners including Asda, Boots, Costco, Royal Mail, Greggs, Regenersis, NatWest and our operational partner BT. Asda's fundraising activity for the 2008 Appeal raised £2.1 million, the biggest cheque the charity has ever received from a corporate fundraiser.

The 2007 Appeal raised over £37m and for every penny donated to the charity, a penny will go directly to a project helping disadvantaged children in the UK. The charity is able to make this promise because it uses its investment income to cover all operational costs.

The charity invites organisations to apply for funding four times a year. Applications are wide-ranging and come from a variety of voluntary projects, community groups and registered charities around the UK, from rural areas to the inner cities.

In 2008 BBC Children in Need distributed grants worth £37,038,483 to 1,343 different projects. The average size of a grant this year was £27,579, with the amounts ranging from £300 to £200,716.

The organisations that received funding all work with youngsters aged 18 and under who may have mental, physical or sensory disabilities; behavioural or psychological disorders; are living in poverty or situations of deprivation; or suffering through distress, abuse or neglect.