Alan Simpson

Did you hear the one about?

BBC Radio Ulster's Alan Simpson goes head-to-head with top comedy actor Alan McKee in a stand-up, stand-off for BBC Children in Need this weekend.

The pair will be trying to win the votes of spectators at Windsor Park on Saturday afternoon (November 8) ahead of the Linfield v Dungannon Swifts match in an attempt to out-funny each other with jokes.

Alan Simpson will use jokes provided throughout this week by listeners to his afternoon radio programme, while Alan McKee will tell his own jokes.

Football fans will then be asked to judge which Alan is the funniest by making donations to BBC Children in Need, and whichever Alan collects the most money will be deemed the winner.

The overall winner will be announced on Alan's show on BBC Children in Need day (Friday, November 14).

Alan Simpson said: "Everybody says people in Northern Ireland have a great sense of humour and judging from some of the texts and calls we get through to the programme they are extremely funny. So it's the professional versus the amateur and I am going to do my level best to out-joke Alan McKee and raise money for BBC Children in Need at the same time."

Last year on the night, locally BBC Children in Need raised £606,399 from pledges and donations, part of the UK total of £19,089,771 which grew to a final total of over £37m.

In Northern Ireland this year, a total of £3.2m in grants were distributed to 284 groups/organisations working with disadvantaged children and young people.

Visit bbc.co.uk/northernireland/pudsey for more information on this year's BBC Children in Need Appeal and how you can help or call for a fundraising pack on 0345 607 33 33.