What a shame that John Sergeant, the butt of so many snotty comments from the Strictly Come Dancing judges, decided to pull out of the very popular Saturday/Sunday show.

It had to be admitted that he wasn’t very good at it. In fact it was obvious that everyone else in the competition is a whole lot better – and that includes Cherie Lunghi, who was voted out last week, much to the disappointment of the legion of admirers of her dancing style and those magnificent 56-year-old legs.

But the public took it into their heads to support him – either because he was the underdog, because he’s a likeable sort of chap or because they felt sorry for him being described as a “dancing pig” or “ballroom chancer”.

Should he have urged them not to vote for him? Should he have danced on, smiling his winningly-modest smile and relishing his new-found status as a national treasure? Or should he have quit? In the end he did the latter, declaring, “The trouble is that there is now a real danger that I might win the competition. Even for me that would be a joke too far.”

It could well have happened. If the Sergeant-supporting trend had continued through the competition, one by one, the least worst above him would have been eliminated until finally there was just a very good dancer and him in it. And in the final the judges couldn’t have exercised their judgment and voted him out. It would have been up to the public. So he might have won, much to the chagrin of those who take this show very seriously.

His departure sort of takes the fun out of things. I found the public’s eccentric insistence on keeping him in the contest very endearing and in a way reassuring. If ordinary Brits can dig their heels in like this and support their chosen champion despite the scorn poured on them by the dancing establishment, all is not lost for this strange and troubled nation of ours.

If you need further evidence of that, look at the way the Children In Need annual fundraiser confounded everyone with its success. The general expectation was that donations during last Friday’s TV and radio marathon would be down in view of the economic crisis. But instead they were up, topping £21 million on the night with more still to come in.

Many congratulations to everyone involved at the BBC, the darker side of which has been in the headlines in recent weeks. When it gets things wrong, it fully deserves the brickbats. But when it gets them right, as with Children in Need, it merits more praise than it received for this fine effort.

Thanks to the hard work of Wogan and Co during the hugely entertaining TV show, and with people like Chris Evans and Take That setting new standards of generosity with their own money, Children In Need defied all the odds – a bit like John Sergeant.