Scenes from a Great Yarmouth project are being beamed into living rooms across the nation as the BBC prepares for its annual Children in Need televised appeal on Friday November 18.

Sunbeams Play in Gapton Hall Road is being held up as beacon project by the grant-giving charity whose donation of £99,000 over three years is crucial to the caring operation.

Centre manager Monica Bates said a 10-strong crew spent a day filming with children and their families who benefit from a range of support services at the site, in schools, and online.

She said that Sunbeams was one of five chosen to feature in the national advert, promoting the charity and its life-changing work in the run-up to its annual celebrity-studded extravaganza.

Those children who were able to join in with the filming thoroughly enjoyed it she said, describing it as “a once in a lifetime experience.”

In the film Mrs Bates talks about the importance of the Children in Need funding which is paying for specialist equipment and staff they would otherwise not have.

The centre is for children and young people who come under the autism umbrella and is reckoned to be “a one off.”

Sunbeams opened in March 2015 with five children and now sees around 80 a week and provides support to families in Norwich.