BBC presenter Victoria Valentine has condemned the broadcaster over its latest Children in Need fundraiser.
Miss Valentine, 38, who sometimes presents BBC Breakfast, said she felt ‘ashamed’ watching DJ Scott Mills taking on The Great Scott TreadMills Challenge and compared it to the ‘humiliation and ridicule’ seen on old reality TV shows.
The Radio 2 presenter, 49, was visited by a plethora of stars as he ran and walked non-stop on a treadmill for 24 hours ahead of tomorrow’s charity telethon.
Presenter Nicki Chapman, 55, shared a video of herself running alongside Mills, who is seen hunched over and struggling to keep moving this morning.
She wrote: ‘This man is a machine – just a few hours left on that treadmill for Scott’s incredible challenge. 24 hours straight… well nearly there…. He’s in pain, he’s tired & emotional but he’s also committed!!’
Miss Valentine, 38, who sometimes presents BBC Breakfast, said she felt ‘ashamed’ watching DJ Scott Mills taking on The Great Scott TreadMills Challenge
Unimpressed, Miss Valentine tweeted: ‘Oh man. Poor guy. Actually feeling a little ashamed to be inadvertently watching a public spectacle of one man’s tunnel of pain’
The Radio 2 presenter, 49, was visited by a plethora of stars as he ran and walked non-stop on a treadmill for 24 hours ahead of tomorrow’s charity telethon
Miss Valentine said the fundraise seemed ‘a little… 2015’ due to the ‘public spectacle of one man’s tunnel of pain’
Unimpressed, Miss Valentine tweeted: ‘Oh man. Poor guy. Actually feeling a little ashamed to be inadvertently watching a public spectacle of one man’s tunnel of pain.
‘Is it not a little…2015? When reality tv meant humiliation & ridicule was de rigueur? I hear “all for a good cause” but are we not kinder now?’
One Twitter user replied: ‘Yes I think you have a point but it was Scott’s idea to do this.’
Another added: ‘There are much better ways of drawing attention to a cause.’
Presenter Nicki Chapman, 55, shared a video of herself running alongside Mills and tweeted her support
Mills, 49, completed his 24-hours at 8.20am this morning, raising more than £1million for BBC Children In Need
Mills, 49, completed his 24-hours at 8.20am this morning, raising more than £1million for BBC Children In Need.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, he said: ‘I just want to say thank you to everyone (who has donated).
‘It’s been such a ride, I honestly didn’t think in these times we would even get close to that amount and I’m truly grateful.’
He also said he was a ‘mixture of exhausted and exhilarated’ but had no plans to sleep due to the adrenaline.
The broadcaster said that at 3.56am he almost thought he would not make it.
When asked about how his feet felt, he said the blisters were ‘not too bad’ but two of his toes were ‘having an argument with each other and were rubbing against each other quiet ferociously’.
The broadcaster said that at 3.56am he almost thought he would not make it (pictured with Olly Murs)
The Great Scott TreadMills challenge is the latest 24-hour BBC challenge to raise money for Children in Need
Mills also said he was a ‘mixture of exhausted and exhilarated’ but had no plans to sleep due to the adrenaline
The Great Scott TreadMills Challenge follows in the footsteps of Radio 2’s previous 24-hour challenges for BBC Children In Need, including Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Kitchen Disco Danceathon, which raised more than £1million in 2021, and the Joe Wicks 24-Hour PE Challenge which raised more than £2.5million in 2020.
In 2019, Rylan Clark undertook his 24-hour Great Ka-RY-oke Challenge, which helped raise more than £2million.
Last month, Miss Valentine, once known to viewers as Victoria Fritz, revealed she had changed her surname to her mother’s maiden name – Valentine – after splitting up with husband Dan Fritz.
She said she ‘couldn’t go back’ to her maiden name, Trench, because it felt ‘emotionally regressive, stunting, depressing and quite frankly, anti-feminist’.
She was married to Mr Fritz for 11 years and they have two children together.
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