Children in Need doesn't lose sight of the real poverty in Britain As I write this, I've only the highest hopes that Friday night's Children in Need appeal will have encouraged you to contribute to our continuing efforts to help Britain's underprivileged, sick and vulnerable children. Despite the economic downturn, the past couple of years have been record-breakers in terms of the amounts contributed to the cause by the British public, in their truly remarkable generosity. The little bear with the bandage over his eye, Pudsey, seems to strike a responsive chord in the nation's heart, and it's the people who give up their time to stand in the November chill with collecting boxes on railway station platforms, outside schools, at shopping centres and in 100 high streets that make the difference, along with 1,000 cake stalls, school dressing-up days, and yes, even bathing in a bathful of beans, that elevate Pudsey to the little chap's status as the country's best-loved charitable icon. Pudsey's Big Night started in the foyer of a Hammersmith hotel in 1980. I was there, with Esther Rantzen and Sue Lawley (they've always had a couple of able-bodied women to hold me up) and on that mould-breaking night, the public contributed £1million in five hours. Remarkable, considering the idea of a "charity telethon" was new to British viewers, and that certain elements in Auntie Beeb's dustier corridors weren't exactly enthusiastic. I remember the producer of BBC One's most popular comedy at the time, It Ain't Half Hot Mum, refusing to allow us a strapline at the bottom of the screen with our phone number and address, fearing it might detract from the episode. It took a few years, but everybody's on board now, and since 1980 the appeal has raised in excess of £650 million. I'd like to think that you can top that up to around £700 million this year, but whatever you can give, every penny will go to help the children. It's the films of sick or handicapped children, their bravery and that of their families, that tug at the heartstrings, but we shouldn't lose sight of the real poverty that exists in Britain. Children in Need provides thousands of cookers and beds to unfortunate families who have nothing to sleep or cook on. People talk of the "undeserving poor," who won't work, and who spend their state benefits on drink and drugs. Whatever you may think of feckless adults, no child "deserves" to be poor. As poor and hungry as one particular little boy I've been told of by a child-welfare official. The boy had a free lunch in school on Friday, and didn't eat again properly until his next school lunch on Monday. In this day and age in Britain, you may think such Dickensian poverty impossible in a welfare state, but it's true. I've no idea how many more hungry children there are like that little boy, but I know that there are 1,000 heartbreaking stories like his. But I've already asked enough of your generosity.