ITV’s Text Santa appeal reveal 2015 campaign

Text Santa

ITV’s Text Santa appeal is back, teaming up with three charities, Macmillan Cancer Support, Make-A-Wish UK and Save the Children.

“It’s all about fun, festive, fabulous knitwear. With a call to ‘do your bit in a Christmas knit’ Text Santa is asking everyone to get out their favourite Christmas woolly for Text Santa Christmas Jumper Day on Friday 18th December and to help give hope to families in difficulty this Christmas.” – ITV

The festive fundraising doesn’t end there, with the chance for people to don a Santa suit to take part in London’s largest Santa run, attend a Christmas quiz at their local pub and much more. The official fundraising starts with a bang on the 1st December leading up to the big Christmas Jumper Day on the 18th December culminating in a three-hour TV spectacular on ITV.

Last year’s Text Santa star-studded evening got the nation talking and included everyone’s favourite Hollywood star George Clooney making his own special contribution to Downton Abbey; host Phillip Schofield climbing the Shard; a particularly stomach churning attempt at some of the I’m A Celebrity challenges by group McBusted; a rap battle between hosts Alesha Dixon and Paddy McGuinness; and live music throughout the evening as well as special sketches from ITV shows such as Birds of A Feather and Coronation Street.

Thames Telethon - Thames TV - 1980

The appeal hopes to inspire a whole army of fundraisers this year to raise more money than ever before. By supporting the work of Macmillan Cancer Support, Make-A-Wish and Save the Children monies raised will make a real difference to people affected by cancer, children with life limiting illnesses and children in crisis at home and abroad.

Text Santa is now in its fifth year and has so far raised over £21million for UK charities. The annual appeal also helps to increase awareness of the vital work of our charity partners by using ITV’s reach to millions of viewers across the UK.

People can start fundraising right now by visiting ITV.com/textsanta and signing up for a fundraising kit.

The first ITV telethon aired across 24-hours, with ten hours in total on air, in the London region only in 1980 with the Thames Telethon. It was the first telethon to air in the UK, beating the BBC’s Children In Need. A second London-only fundraiser aired on Thames Television in 1985. Three years later the first of  three network versions aired with the ITV Telethon running across 24-hours of television in 1988, 1990 and 1992.

ITV Telethon

UK Television Telethon Timeline

  • 1980 – The first TV telethon in the UK takes place with Thames Television’s fundraiser airing only on ITV in the London region.
  • 1980 – BBC Television revamp Children In Need into an annual television telethon. The fundraising had began in 1927 on radio, with yearly appeals airing on BBC TV, later BBC One, from 1955 to 1979.
  • 1985 – The second Thames Telethon airs, again just in the ITV London area.
  • 1985 – Pudsey Bear made his television debut as the Children In Need mascot.
  • 1988 – Thames Telethon becomes part of the networked ITV Telethon mixing regional output with national programming from London. All ITV regions presented their own parts of the telethon. A joint network effort between Thames Television and LWT formed the Telethon Trust.
  • 1988 – Having been founded in 1985 by Richard Curtis and Lennie Henry, Comic Relief airs its first telethon on BBC One. It, like the ITV Telethon, airs in an biennial format of alternating years.
  • 1990 – Protests by DAN a group of disabled people, picket the studios of the BBC and ITV over their telethons, saying the output is patronising. The ITV offering however raised £24 million for 14,000 good causes while BBC One’s raised over £18 million.
  • 1992 – The final ITV Telethon aired following complaints from a small group of disabled people who felt the charity appeal films within the programme ‘reinforced negative stereotypes’. Others despaired the protests had stopped millions benefiting from the funds ‘cutting of their nose to spite their faces’.
  • 2002 – BBC Sport and Comic Relief join forces to create Sport Relief. It airs on BBC One in the alternating years biennial format.
  • 2010 – Children In Need celebrates thirty years of the BBC television telethon.
  • 2011 – ITV reinvent their telethon as the annual Text Santa.