Children in Need: Ed Sheeran kicks off BBC charity show

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Ed Sheeran has kicked off this year's BBC Children in Need appeal show in Salford with a live performance.

Singer Sheeran sang new single Overpass Graffiti, while hosts Graham Norton and Mel Giedroyc took part in a skit involving mascot Pudsey.

Later Norton and other celebrities will get the red chair treatment he usually dishes out to his talk show audience.

And soap characters from EastEnders and Coronation Street will find themselves together on a date.

Walford's Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks) will turn to the Channel 4 dating show First Dates in search of love, where she will be met by Weatherfield's leading lothario Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson).

This year's live show is the first to be held at BBC Studios in Salford.

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It is being hosted by Norton and Giedroyc alongside Ade Adepitan, Chris Ramsey and Alex Scott.

Shaun Ryder and Bez, from Manchester band Happy Mondays, joined Manchester United footballer Harry Maguire in a sketch for Pudsey's arrival at the show.

The yellow bear arrived at the studio in James Bond style, pulling up in a speedboat to the 007 theme tune.

By 20:30 GMT, a total of £20,403,012 had already been raised.

In another sketch, Olympics and Team GB stars, including gymnast Max Whitlock, joined Claire Balding for a sports day, with Whitlock being disqualified from the egg and spoon race for using glue.

There was also a version of Fleetwood Mac's Everywhere – this year's official Children in Need single – performed by Anne-Marie and Niall Horan.

And Danny Dyer has presented a special edition of the BBC One gameshow The Wall, with CBBC stars Sam and Mark testing their knowledge to win cash for the charity.

In a charity edition of The Repair Shop, Jay Blades and repair duo Amanda Middleditch and Julie Tatchell helped restore a teddy bear, Henry, for 13-year-old Billy Matthews.

Billy Matthews and mum Mandy on the Children in Need version of the Repair Shop

Meanwhile, Paddy McGuinness hosted the lip sync challenge I Can See Your Voice, with Jimmy Carr, Alison Hammond and Amanda Holden acting as judges while BBC presenters took part.

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Ahead of this year's show, BBC weatherman Owain Wyn Evans made Children in Need history after his drumathon became the charity's most successful 24-hour challenge, making more than £3 million.

Presenter Matt Baker and his team of five young people also raised more than £2 million this week by cycling 142 miles across the UK, and Sophie Ellis-Bextor pulled in more than £1m through her 24-hour dance challenge.

Later in the show Norton, Oti Mabuse, Stephen Fry, Shaun Wallace and Johnny Vegas will all take their turn in the infamous red chair from The Graham Norton Show, from where they will each have to tell an interesting tale or risk being cruelly flipped head over heels mid-yarn by a powerful panel of children.

And some of the nation's best-loved puppets and classic children's' TV favourites – Basil Brush, Rainbow's Zippy, George and Bungle, and Zig and Zag et al – will collaborate on a charity music video.

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