Like every year, the television charity extravaganza �Children in Need� was organised by BBC 1 yesterday. Once more it was co-hosted by Terry Wogan, host of the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest and current commentator of the contest for the BBC. A big surprise for all Eurovision fans was a special appearance by former Eurovision winner Lulu (1969) and former Eurovision presenter Ronan Keating (1997).

The program is part of a wider annual national charity. Its objectives are to help disadvantaged children, which includes �children who are chronically ill or profoundly disabled, victims of abuse and those who live in poverty�, as the organizers say.

�Children in Need� was hosted by Terry Wogan and Gaby Roslin. Terry kept his characteristic style throughout the program, which included interrupting his fellow-host and guests (yes, it�s not only Eurovision songs he tends to interrupt). However, he somehow never fails to add a very funny and pleasant touch with his appearances and this year�s �Children in Need� was no exception.

A large number of celebrities took part in the program in order to help raising money, either being in the studio, or from live links with open stages all over the UK. Some of the stars who contributed to the effort with appearances were Sir Elton John, Rod Stewart, Pierce Brosnan, Anastasia, the British group Blue, Australian pop-siren Holly Valance, Will Young and many more. However the real surprise for the ESC fans came from a live link with Northern Ireland. In front of a crowd of 8,000 people at Belfast's millennium Odyssey arena, former Eurovision stars Ronan Keating and Lulu sung together a duet.

The program proved to be very successful and is expected to do better than the record-breaking £25m that was raised last year. “Last year we raised £12.9m (on the night) and ended up with £25m. To get something like £28m this year, that would be really fantastic�, said Martina Milburn, director of �Children in Need�, to BBC News.