“It was such a good feeling” – Thomas’ account of singing in the BBC’s Children in Need Choir
Thomas, a member of CLAPA’s Children and Young People’s Council (CYPC), performed in this year’s BBC Children in Need Choir – live to a studio audience and millions of television viewers.
Here is Thomas’ story of how it all happened…
My Children in Need Experience
Last summer, I spoke to Meg from the BBC about how CLAPA had helped me. She asked if I would like to be part of Children in Need and I said “Yes”. A few weeks later, she called and asked if I would be a part of the Children in Need Choir.
As part of my experience, I also recorded for BBC Radio 2, and was filmed for BBC South, and went to the BBC South Studios and went on their 6.30pm news slot. 
Then the big day, or couple of days came. On Thursday the 13th November, we (my mum and I) started the drive up to MediaCityUK in Manchester. We listened to Radio 2 the whole way, hearing about some of the other young people’s stories.
On arrival at our hotel, we tried to check in (couldn’t), so waited for our taxi to the studio. We arrived, and sat around for a couple of hours getting to know everyone, until Mark, the conductor, turned up (they filmed his arrival several times) and we started rehearsals…for an hour. Then we left the BBC site.
Now, I love aviation, so when I saw a Red Arrow right outside the front door, I had to have a closer look! This was because Greg James did a Children in Need challenge this year.
We then went to Pizza Express for dinner (for starters you should definitely try the ‘three cheese dough balls’, they are so delicious!!!!) and went back to the hotel to check in…but the room wasn’t ready, so the staff put us in a different room.
In the morning, we had breakfast, and watched Salford Quays almost get flooded (as it was in the middle of Storm Claudia). We took the taxi (thank goodness there was a taxi) back to Media City, and waited. We rehearsed again in the studio with the cathedral choir and another choir, had dinner (more pizza) and waited until it was time to go to the studio. We were given our microphones, and walked down, and went on stage.
After the choir sung (and all of the confetti had fallen), it was such a good feeling, I think everyone should get to experience – though I bet you would get used to it after a while. When Rochelle and Lenny were introducing the next bit, Vernon said ‘Ahh, my knees!’ when he got up from talking to one of the other choir members.
After the performance, we had to go straight back to the hotel as the BBC only have a licence for children for nine hours and we had been there since midday. The few of us who were still up, watched the rest of the live show on TV and saw how much the total was (£45,507,536!). I think we all felt so good knowing that we had helped our charities and many more.
Thank you Thomas
Thank you Thomas for sharing your story and many congratulations for being a part of the Children in Need Choir.
