The long awaited Benidorm karaoke fundraiser took place at the Comedy Club last night – and what a night it was. The queue spiralled all the way down to Calle Gerona at 6:30pm even though the evening wasn’t due to kick off until after 8pm! For Benidorm series fans it was a unique one off opportunity to meet and rub shoulders with many of the cast members.
Derren Litten had joked earlier in the week on his twitter feed that Joan Collins would be there – and he wasn’t wrong! She opened the fundraiser – but not in person. Instead Derren had cleverly and ingeniously managed to broadcast a recording on the massive back screen of Dame Joan introducing the event and Derren as compare for the night.
Montserrat, the President of Emaus for which the evening was in aid of was guest of honour and spoke emotionally at the fantastic turnout and support for the charity. She called Janine Duvitski onto the stage, ambassador of the “Euro a Month” charity who spoke of the sad state that Emaus are in, having visited the Altea home herself and so her reason for getting involved.
All attendees received a Solana wristband - I wonder if any are on ebay today! It was a real family show and with it being half term in the UK many children came, sitting right up at the front by the stage – with iPhones in hand, snapping away and uploading to social media for all their friends back in the UK to see.
Jake Canuso, Tony Maudsley, Tim Healy, Sherrie Hewson and all the other the cast members took to the stage one after another to much applause from the audience. Derren’s bucket was passed around and many euro notes were thrown in – which Derren has promised to match.
As soon as everything has been counted it will be announced – but judging by the turnout, which must have numbered somewhere close to the 400 mark I think it will be a fantastic grand total. Towards the end of the night fans were either at the front of the stage – rather than in their seats or actually jumping onto it to get up close to the stars!The night finished "early" according to Montserrat as the cast were filming the following day - goodness knows how long it would have gone on for otherwise... my guess late!
Emaus are owed 6 million euros by the Government and the staff haven’t been paid for the last 5 month – they are reliant on costly bank loans to pay for the running of the home. When asked by Government representatives why they still going to work Montserrat replied because if they didn’t who would look after the children – they couldn’t just abandon them! Lets hope that this awful situation is resolved - well done and congratulation to all those that attended and especially to Derren who organised the special event.
**** STOP PRESS ****
THE TOTAL RAISED, WITH ADDITIOANL CORPORATE AND PRIVATE DONATIONS NOW STANDS AT €13,039,52
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