PUDSEY Bear was up with the lark today at the beginning of a Children in Need challenge that starts and finishes in the North-East.

The official mascot of the BBC charity was setting off on a whistle- stop tour of the country's seven passport offices, leaving Durham's Millburngate House complex at 6am.

Accompanied by Durham office production manager Ann Underwood and passport officer Christine Bell, the bear hopes to have his passport stamped at each of the UK Passport Service's offices in two days.

They will be collecting as much cash as possible for the children's charity from the general public and staff at each office.

The trio will travel by train to the service's new head office, in London, calling into the Peterborough regional office en route.

From London they will head west to Newport, in south Wales, and then to Liverpool.

After an overnight rest in Merseyside, Pudsey and his minders head north of the border to Glasgow, before returning to Durham.

There is also a flight to Ulster to fit in, to call at the Belfast office, to ensure all seven stamps are on the specially-issued passport.

The passport will be handed in, together with the cash raised along the way, at the BBC's Pink Palace studios, in Fenham, Newcastle, for tomorrow's live Children in Need broadcast.

Staff at all seven offices are staging various activities, including fancy dress, cake baking, fortune-telling and other events, to add to the tally raised through the day