This year, Children in Need finds its rhythm with an album of cover songs by some of the UK’s most beloved stars
This year, Children in Need is taking a whole new approach to star-studded fundraising by bringing together some of the UK’s biggest talents to record a cover album.
Each year, Children in Need delights UK audiences and unites fundraisers across the country with a show featuring some of the brightest stars in sport, music, television and film.
Since 1980, the BBC’s Children in Need charity has been raising money for disadvantaged children, and has become known for its celebrity-filled annual telethon and iconic mascot, Pudsey Bear.
Last year, it raised £50.5 million and the total across its 40-year history is thought to have topped £1 billion.
This year, in addition to the usual glamorous, goofy show, Children in Need will also release its debut album: Got it Covered.
The album will feature a host of stars singing songs that made a big impact on them, from Stevie Wonder’s ‘I Wish’ to Taylor Swift’s ‘Never Grow Up’.
Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the album’s release.
What are the songs on Got It Covered?
Oscar-winner and The Crown star Olivia Coleman will be taking on Portishead’s 1995 single Glorybox while two-time Oscar nominee Helena Bonham Carter will deliver a version of Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now.
The Doctor herself, Jodie Whittaker will sing Coldplay’s Yellow, while her fellow Timelord David Tennant will honour his Scottish heritage with a rendition of The Proclaimers’ Sunshine on Leith.
Veteran of the UK stage and screen, Jim Broadbent, will try his hand at Rogers and Hart’s Blue Moon.
Meanwhile, relative newcomer and Yesterday star Himesh Patel will leave the Beatles behind to take on modern pop-rock icons The Killers’ All These Things That I’ve Done.
Got It Covered will also feature Suranne Jones, Adrien Lester, Luke Evans and Shaun Dooley, as well as a group cover of It Must Be Love by Labi Siffre.
When is the album out?
Got It Covered will be released on Friday 1 November, with at least £1.50 from each sale going to charity. You can pre-order it here.
The annual Children in Need show will then follow two weeks later on BBC 1 and BBC 2 on Saturday 16 November.
