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Children in Need 2015 raises a record breaking £37m BBC / Twitter

An array of top celebrities including Selena Gomez, One Direction and Lewis Hamilton have helped raise £37m for the BBC Children in Need. This was £5m more than the £32.6m they raised last year.

Some of the highlights from the from the six-hour television fundraising pageant included a special Star Wars sketch featuring characters from the original trilogy, C-3PO and R2-D2, and Martin Freeman, The Great British Bake Off duo Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins, Sir Alan Sugar and Warwick Davis. There were also performances by Ellie Goulding, Years and Years, and a special appeal by Sir Tom Jones.

This year's Children in Need was hosted by Dermot O'Leary after the 77-year-old regular host, Sir Terry Wogan, was forced to withdraw from the show because of a back problem. O'Leary, 42, passed on his best wishes to Wogan, who has hosted the annual television event since its launch in 1980, as he is set to have a procedure on his ailing back.

"Thank you so, so much." O'Leary said. "To Terry, I hope you're feeling better, I hope we get to enjoy a drop of the pure very soon and we're all doing you justice here."

The replacement host's performance was lauded on social media, with some Twitter users even suggesting that O'Leary would be the ideal replacement for Wogan when the latter does decide to step down from hosting the show.

Twitter user Margaret Pullen said: "Dermot O'Leary is a natural progression from Sir Terry. Such a natural and professional anchorman."

While another user called Charlotte Hek added: "Children In Need won't be the same without Sir Terry but Dermot was an excellent choice of stand in!"

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