Pudsey is out and about again for Children in Need (Picture: Getty Images)

Children in Need would not be the same without its iconic mascot Pudsey Bear helping raise money for charity.

The cuddly yellow critter has been synonymous with the fundraiser for decades, although he actually wasn’t around from the very start of Children In Need.

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Pudsey came into our lives in 1985 (making him 33), five years after Children In Need began, as the BBC looked for a new logo to attract more interest in the charity.

Graphic designer Joanna Lane was tasked with creating the new design and the result was the little yellow bear whose roots are deep in West Yorkshire.

Joanna Lane with her iconic creation (Picture: ANL/REX Shutterstock)

‘It was like a lightbulb moment for me,’ Joanna said. ‘We were bouncing ideas off each other and I latched on to this idea of a teddy bear.

‘I had a whole story playing out in my head for this bear, I went to the production team and said, “we need to name it”. So they turned around and said “if you think it’s important to name him, you do it”.

‘It came from the heart – I looked to my own experience and named him in honour of my home town and my grandparents.’

Sir Terry Wogan and his favourite bear (Picture: PA Wire)

Joanna was born and raised in Pudsey, a town in West Yorkshire in between Bradford and Leeds.

For the uninitiated, Pudsey is a small town of around 22,000, mostly known for its cricketing sons, with the likes of Len Hutton, Raymond Illingworth and Matthew Hoggard all born there.

Lane was a proud daughter of Pudsey and her grandfather, Irvine Ball, had been mayor of the town in 1950, so she decided to name the Children In Need bear after her birthplace.

Pudsey the town has honoured Pudsey the bear with a floral representation of him in Pudsey Park.

Pudsey Bear in Pudsey Park (Picture: Flickr/rutty)

Sir Terry Wogan introduced Pudsey to the world in 1985 and from 1986 the bear was the official logo of Children In Need.

He was initially brown with a red bandage on his head and his buttons spelling out BBC down his front, but this gradually all changed.

Nowadays he has his famous yellow fur with a multi-coloured polka-dot bandage and he is entirely buttonless.

Why he wears the eye-patch/bandage/bandana has never been fully explained, but we can assume it is to make Pudsey seem ‘in need’ himself, and relateable for the children the charity is working for.

Pudsey tours the West Yorkshire town with the same name in the mayoral Rolls Royce with the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Councillor Sydney Symmonds in 1985 (Picture: Getty Images)

In 2009, Children In Need added a new bear to their collection as Blush joined the fundraising outfit.

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Still around today, Blush has not quite developed the same following as Pudsey, despite her fetching spotty bow and rosy cheeks.

However, she has met Westlife, so fair play to her.

Westlife with Blush backstage during BBC Children in Need 2011 (Picture: WireImage)

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