Artist performances • The 2008 show opened with
McFly performing "
Stay With Me", one of the songs from this year's official Children in Need double A side single, before rushing off to
Birmingham, to continue their
Radio:ACTIVE tour •
Emma Barton from
EastEnders performed "You to Me are Everything" •
Boyzone performed their latest single "
Love You Anyway" live from the
Belfast Children in Need event •
Duffy performed "
Rain on Your Parade" from her album
Rockferry •
Leon Jackson gave an exclusive first performance of "Creative" – the second single to be released from his album
Right Now •
Girls Aloud performed their Number 1 hit "
The Promise" from their album
Out of Control •
Take That performed their new single "
Greatest Day" •
Sugababes opened the second part of the show with "
Girls" •
McFly appeared again to perform the other song from the double A side "
Do Ya." This was pre-recorded due to the band leaving early •
Duffy made a second appearance to perform her song "
Mercy" •
Alesha Dixon made a second appearance, this time singing "
The Boy Does Nothing" from her album
The Alesha Show •
One Night Only performed "Just for Tonight" •
Il Divo performed "The Power of Love (La Fuerza Mayor)" from their 2008 album
The Promise •
Boyzone made a second appearance to perform "
Love Me for a Reason", again live from Belfast •
Will Young performed his new single "
Grace" from his album
Let It Go •
Stereophonics performed "
Have a Nice Day" from their 2001 album
Just Enough Education to Perform from the
Cardiff event •
John Barrowman performed "What About Us" from his second album
Music Music Music •
Jason Donovan performed a cover version of "
Be My Baby" •
James Morrison and
Keisha Buchanan performed a duet of "Broken Strings", a song he originally recorded with
Nelly Furtado •
Russell Watson performed a cover of "
Me and Mrs. Jones" •
Sharleen Spiteri performed "
All the Times I Cried" from her solo album
Melody in
Glasgow •
Enya performed "
Trains and Winter Rains" from her 2008 album
And Winter Came... from Belfast •
Katie Melua performed "
The Closest Thing to Crazy" from her first album
Call Off the Search • Revelation, finalists in "
Last Choir Standing" and
Sharon D. Clarke, one of the judges from the show, performed a cover of "
Ain't No Mountain High Enough"
Cast performances • The cast of
The Bill put together a tribute to
The Blues Brothers • The cast from the 2009 revival of
Oliver! performed a medley of songs from the show featuring the winners of ''
I'd Do Anything'' (shown twice throughout the broadcast, the second time was to replace a scheduled appearance by
Razorlight who had to pull out at the last minute due to illness) • The cast of
EastEnders performed a tribute to
West End Theatre featuring songs from
Moulin Rouge!,
My Fair Lady,
Saturday Night Fever,
Billy Elliot and
Mary Poppins (shown twice throughout the broadcast) • The
BBC Newsreaders performed a tribute to
ABBA as their 2008 contribution • A group of BBC presenters (including
Blue Peter,
Match of the Day,
TMi and also
ITV's
Al Murray)
lip synced to "
Rockstar" • The cast of the London production of
Hairspray arrived straight from the night's production to perform "You Can't Stop the Beat" • The crew from
DIY SOS performed a cover of "
Addicted to Love"
Others •
Merlin in Need a special 2 minute sketch from
Merlin. • A special junior edition of
MasterChef • A special episode of
Strictly Come Dancing with Terry Wogan and
Flavia Cacace dancing against regular 'Strictly' presenter Tess Daly who was partnered with
Anton Du Beke • A preview clip from the
2008 Christmas Special of
Doctor Who (shown twice throughout the broadcast) • A special,
How to Look Good Naked in Weatherfield, a combination of
Coronation Street and
How to Look Good Naked (shown twice throughout the broadcast) • A sketch of
The Royle Family sitting watching Children in Need • Another combination, this time
Richard Hammond from
Top Gear appeared in a special one off mini episode of
Ashes to Ashes (shown twice throughout the broadcast) • A short sketch of
Alex Salmond MSP (Scottish First Minister), portraying
Rikki Fulton's Rev I M Jolly. This was only shown in the Scottish region • WWE wrestler
Kofi Kingston and Hardeep Singh Kohli had a match on a WWE video game. This was only shown in the Scottish Region.
QI During the customary break for the
BBC News at Ten the first episode of the 6th series of
QI was screened on
BBC Two. The episode had a Children in Need theme. As with previous Children in Need specials, it guest starred Pudsey Bear,
David Mitchell and
Ronni Ancona, however immediately following the contestant introductions, Terry Wogan appeared to dismiss Pudsey and take his place.
Stephen Fry admitted on
Twitter that the special was recorded in May or June of this year.
Celebrity Scissorhands A third series of
Celebrity Scissorhands was shown in the run up to the 2008 event, again featuring celebrity hairdresser
Lee Stafford and
Steve Strange as lead stylist. The winner was
Sabrina Washington with
Jeff Leach as the runner up. == Official single ==