Tonight it was the turn of the winning coat to be worn on stage - designed by four girls from Northern Ireland - Aine M, Shannon Q, Shannen D and Katie C who were in the audience with family and friends. Of course the 'one and only' Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat made its usual appearances during the course of the show, but when Lee returned to the stage at the end of the megamix, he did so in the winning coat, pictured below along with their original design sketch and with the campaign flyer.
When Lee returned to 'earth' from the cherrypicker, he appealed for quiet (which took a while!) and explained why he 'was dressed like Pudsey' (the predominant colour of the winning entry being yellow!) when Children in Need wasn't until tomorrow. Lee talked for a short while about the importance of anti-bullying week and asked the audience to support the collection being made for Cut It Out as we left the theatre.There was an unexpected end to this story however - I arrived at my hotel an hour or so after the show and popped into the bar to get a drink (as you do!). I was joined at the bar by three ladies with distinctive Irish accents, clearly dressed for a night out. Something made me look round to the table they had come from, and there, surrounded by 'Joseph' bags were four young girls. I turned to the ladies at the bar and said 'Are they the winners?' With a look of surprise, one replied 'Of the coat competition? Yes they are! Were you at the show then?'
I congratulated the girls on their wonderful design, telling them how fabulous it had looked from my vantage point at the centre of the front row (although I'm yet to be entirely convinced that yellow is Lee's colour!)
The remaining six finalists also had their designs made up and these were worn by Lee at performances during Anti-Bullying Week itself - you can find pictures of each design on the relevant day's entry on the Timeline. All seven coats were then auctioned on Ebay raising a total of £1,478.40 for Beatbullying.
You can download videos of two related TV features - from Ulster TV coverage of the winning designers' trip to London and meeting with Lee, and from Anglian TV an anti-bullying feature and finally, there are a few screencaps from the latter.
Last updated: 13 November 2017
