ITV: No cash to the hospices

Finally, ITV have confirmed it. They did run the Challenge Anneka programme as an opportunity to swell ITV's coffers:

No money was donated from the advertising sales. The charity money was raised purely through CD sales.

Which is, of course, a miserable two quid from the cover price.

We're not even going to bother asking if ITV made more selling advertising slots on the programme than the charity did from selling the CDs. Instead, we'll just point you in the direction of the Association of Children's Hospices website where you can make a donation without having to buy a record with Duncan James on it.

Cold rice

Talking of ITV... it's now two months since we asked ITV the simple question "did you pass the advertising revenue raised during the Challenge Anneka programme on to the Children's Hospice the show was supposed to be helping?"

It's still not been answered. Each day that passes starts to make it look like more like an awkward no, doesn't it?

ITV still having trouble with its response

Talk of charity reminds us... it's now a month and eight days since we first wrote to ITV to ask if the network was topping up the rather disappointing £2 per album being given to the Association of Children's Hospices from the Challenge Anneka album by handing over the money it made selling advertising on the programme. We suspect that if the answer was a 'yes' we might have heard by now. But we're still waiting to be surprised.

A challenge too far

Following on from the discovery that only two quid from the Challenge Anneka charity CD was making its way to the children's hospices, we sent a quick email to ITV to ask if, at least, the advertising revenue from the programme would be going to a good cause.

A simple request, you might have thought.

And, indeed, we got a reply straight away:

Thank you for your recent email.

I can confirm your enquiry has been forwarded to a member of the
production team for their viewing.

That was June 11th. How long can it take to type either 'yes' or 'no'?

Challenge Anneka: Where's the money going?

Most charity records are a bit shady - even if the artists give their time for free, other expenses can eat away at the donation. It's usually a better idea to buy a record you like, and give a donation equal to the price of the charity record straight to the good cause.

Even so, it's something of a surprise to discover that if you shell out £14 for the showtunes album put together by Anneka Rice on ITV the other week, just £2 goes to the Association of Children's Hospices.

[A] spokeswoman last night insisted no one except the charity is profiting from the album.

She said the £13.95 retail price was necessary to cover costs like manufacturing, distribution and retailing, and said the £2 per copy was a higher donation than normal for a charity CD.

The spokeswoman added: “Reaction to the programme has been incredible. This will help tremendously in raising awareness of the charity and a substantial donation.”

But is that even true? In all the pre-publicity for the programme we saw, the name of the charity wasn't mentioned - if the idea was to "raise awareness", would it not have made sense to at least mention the Association in the trailers, rather than having a brief shot of a telegenic tot and a vague statement that "Anneka's doing it for the kids"?

Still, the charity will at least get a boost when ITV sends a cheque for the advertising slots it sold around the programme.

It is giving the money it made, isn't it?

Meanwhile, you could give direct to the Association.

Somewhere Over The Rainbow? Wait... oh, why?

We know it might be a lot of good work for charity, but never mind Challenge Anneka - if she's getting Myleene Klass amd Duncan James to cover Somewhere Over The Rainbow as part of an album also featuring Curtis Stigers, Richard Fleeshman (that musical career was worth quitting Corrie for, then) and other such top flight talent, could we persuade someone to launch a programme Stop Anneka. Perhaps "By Any Means Necessary".

Yes, Challenge Anneka. ITV is bringing it back. When Michael Grade pledged an end to ITV cloning other channels' programmes, who knew his plan B would be disinterring them instead?