Children in Need 'An Evening With The Stars'

Last Tuesday, I headed off all spangled up, to Paragon‘s annual BBC Children in Need event – An Evening with The Stars – at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.
The evening promised a champagne reception, a gourmet dinner, a plethora of celebs and an enormous silent auction… exciting stuff.

I Uber-ed it to the hotel and before I knew it, my cape was safely in the cloakroom, I was nattering away to the lovely Megan from Paragon and I had a glass of champagne in my hand… swift work.
We were trying to find Catherine from Lux Life, but it was impossible to spot her in a room full of 1100 people, as neither of us had met her before… so, I did what I do best. I tweeted, with a picture of Megan so she could find us.

We finally found her upstairs, where everyone was perusing the auction items, which included everything you could imagine, from a luxury holiday to a coaching session with ex  England captain, Lewis Moody…
Here’s how the magnificent ballroom looked before we all sat down for dinner…


We found our table (no easy task!) and our places and did a bit of celeb spotting… many of the tables were hosted by celebrities… and Catherine was VERY good at this game (I was useless) but I did manage to spot these two chaps…

Gareth Malone opened the event with his All Star Choir.. and I do believe Mel Giedroyc had a bit of a solo at the beginning? She was brilliant!

Terry Wogan followed and gave a super speech, which made me want to sell everything I own in order that I could give the money to Children in Need… I had no idea, but since the charity began, the British public has raised over £740 million for children and young people across the UK. Amazing.
Jon Culshaw MC’d the event and seamlessly and hilariously introduced one artist after the other…
Jack Pack (whom Megan LOVES) entertained us as we munched our way through our salmon starters… and then the mains arrived..

 
The evening went on to include a special “Legends of Sport Do Strictly” show, with Mark Ramprakash, Mark Foster and Phil Tufnell.. and Tony Hadley performed some classics for us too…

Paragon know how to do events (that little number called The Ashes? And next year they are chartering a plane to Monaco for the Grand Prix! Small stuff…)  and the fact that there were so many people at this event, while the feeling in the room remained magical and totally unchaotic, is testament to their super powers.
They pulled off a fantastic event on Tuesday and fingers crossed we’ll all raise masses of moolar on the 14th November for BBC Children in Need this year…
Well done Paragon! And COME ON PUDSY!