This year’s show includes Graham Norton, Ed Sheeran and soap characters on Celebrity First Dates.
Graham Norton and Ed Sheeran have kicked off this year’s BBC Children in Need appeal show in Salford.
Singer Sheeran began the show with a live performance of Overpass Graffiti, while host Norton took part in a skit involving mascot Pudsey.
Later there will also be performances from Anne-Marie and Niall Horan.
The corporation’s annual fundraising event will see Norton get the red chair treatment he usually dishes out to members of his talk show audience.
Characters from the soaps EastEnders and Coronation Street will also find themselves together on a date.
Walford’s Janine Butcher (Charlie Brooks) will turn to the Channel 4 dating show 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 and Shaun Ryder and Bez, from Manchester band Happy Mondays, joined Manchester United footballer Harry Maguire in a skit for Pudsey’s arrival at the show.
It is being hosted by Norton, alongside Ade Adepitan, Mel Giedroyc, Chris Ramsey and Alex Scott.
Olympics stars including gymnast Max Whitlock have joined Claire Balding for a sports day, with Whitlock being disqualified from the egg and spoon race for using glue.
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 24hr 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.
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.
Anne-Marie and Niall Horan will perform the 2021 BBC Children in Need 2021 single, a reimagined version of Everywhere by Fleetwood Mac.
A charity edition of The Repair Shop will find Jay Blades and repair duo Amanda Middleditch and Julie Tatchell carrying out a unique restoration for a young boy.
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.
Elsewhere on the programme, Paddy McGuinness will oversee the lip sync challenge, I Can See Your Voice, which will feature Jimmy Carr, Alison Hammond and Amanda Holden, as well as Children in Need mascot Pudsey.
Danny Dyer will present a special edition of the BBC One gameshow The Wall and there will be a Team GB Team GB and Paralympics GB School Sports Day.
Last year’s on-the-night total reached more than £37million, later growing to £57m.
The BBC Children In Need Appeal Show will be broadcast on BBC One from 19:00 GMT on Friday 19 November.
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