It's goodnight from Kirsties and good night for Children in Need

Published on Saturday 14 November 2009 19:08

THE specs may be the same but the glamour is in a different league.

Journalists Kirsty Young and Kirsty Wark transformed themselves into a female version of comic legends the two Ronnies in the name of charity.

The broadcasters became the "two Kirstys" to help raise money for Children in Need.

Both donned 1970s-style jackets and loud ties to look the part for the spoof news bulletin, which will be shown on Friday night as part of BBC1's Children in Need appeal.

Better known for hard news programmes such as Crimewatch and Newsnight, the Scots even drafted the charity's mascot Pudsey Bear into the sketch, replacing his trademark bandage with a pair of the black-rimmed spectacles that were the Ronnies' signature.

Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett's sketch about two irreverent newsreaders was one of their most popular skits.

The pair would always sign off with Corbett saying: "And it's goodnight from me." Then Barker would add: "And it's goodnight from him."

Kirsty Wark said: "The Two Ronnies was must-watch television – this is our homage to their humour, their specs and their clothes.

"It was great fun recording it with Kirsty and we were both delighted that David Renwick, who had written the original gags, had agreed to write two very special interludes for us."

One of Renwick's new gags brings the Ronnies' humour bang up to date.

One of the Kirstys will say: "I'll be meeting the woman who was thrown off her acupuncture course for not paying. In her defence, she said she had no idea how to enter her pin."

It has become an annual tradition for serious BBC news presenters to play the fool for the charity night. Insiders revealed that the pair struggled to keep straight faces while reading the gags.

Newsreaders Fiona Bruce, Dermot Murnaghan, Andrew Marr, Nicholas Owen, Bill Turnbull and Ben Brown performed a song from the musical Chicago in 2007.

And former BBC political editor Andrew Marr created uproar when he donned stockings and suspenders for a Rocky Horror sketch.