h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I managed it last year, a journal a day for a month seemed quite daunting for someone who hardly ever writes on, but here we are again!

I'll stick to one thread, 1st November in #2, which will in fact be a tale of what I was doing a week ago.

What I did last Saturday, 25th October.

I was in the audience of Strictly! I applied for most dates last year, with no luck. But on the 6th October I was at work when I got a text message:

"Congratulations. Your application for tickets to Strictly Come Dancing on 25/10/14 has been successful. Please check your email for your tickets"

Woo hoo! Just the thing for the first weekend of Half Term, so I sent a quick text to Sunshine to check she could come too. That evening I did some online research about the arrangements. BBC events are run well, I've been attending recordings since back in ye when as a student I used to go to "In Concert" at the Paris Studios in Lower Regent Street.

Strictly is a loooong day. They send out far more e-tickets than there are seats, assuming that quite a lot of people won't go. So at 8am we got to Boreham Wood, with folding chairs and several layers of warm clothes and joined about 50 others. Time passed quite quickly, there's a big Tesco for food and drink and people were very friendly. The queue grew to about 400 people as the morning went on. At 12.30 the stewards went along the line and put a numbered sticker on the tickets. That's the order to go in the evening. We were 74 and 75, and told to return at about 3.15.

We went to lunch, then checked in to our very cheap and cheerful hotel, walking distance from the studio, to get washed and changed. Posh frocks on we walked there and were admitted to the holding marquee. After about 45 minutes we were taken through in strict numerical order. Our seats were behind the family and friends of the dancers, right opposite the judges.

Filming started at 5.30, with the professionals dance for the Sunday (Cotton Eyed Joe), which they did 3 takes. Then Culture Club. Boy George was calm, happy, laughed about his very sparkly hat and there was a lot of love in the room for them all. They did one take of Karma Chameleon, his voice was clear, in tune and they sounded great. Only one take was needed, they left with George thanking his band mates and the backing singers and blowing kisses to the audience.

At 6.30 it went live, the audience is told to react with boos, cheers, lots of applause etc and we all did. We had a great view of the judges, Craig and Darcey natter all the time, Len was suffering from a heavy cold but a total professional when the cameras were on, and Bruno was as bouncy as he appears on screen. There's no consultation about scores, they've obviously made their mind up from watching rehearsals and reach for their numbered paddles straight away.

The live show went very quickly, There was a 20 minute break and then it went to the results, filmed for Sunday. It finished around 10.15, we walked back to the hotel and then watched some on the iplayer to see if we could spot ourselves.

It was a great day! They told us that there had been 1.6 million applications for tickets this year so we were very lucky.

Things we noticed:

The dance floor is tiny!
The dance partners have obviously put in a lot of work and care very much about doing their best. While the VT is on there are final words of encouragement from the professional to their celeb, reassuring smiles, nods etc.
The dresses were beautiful.
The set changes between dances are very quick.
Tess Daley is very professional, Claudia Winkleman is hilarious, both chatted to the audience and were lovely. At one point in the filming for the results show the director asked them to do something and Tess gave Claudia some excellent advice, which was clearly picked up on her microphone. "Never let them make you walk backwards upstairs. 10 years and I've never walked backwards upstairs." Excellent advice!

Of course we tried to spot ourselves on TV but we're in the dark for the show and the results. However on "It Takes Two" with Zoe Ball on the Monday afterwards there was a very quick shot of the audience coming in and we're very clearly in shot!

Finally, I have no idea what they did to the sound for Culture Club when it was broadcast. In the studio it was fine, and there was time to do another take but everyone was happy. Of course his voice has matured, but it was clear and in tune despite what the press said after the TV broadcast.

All in all a great day!

How exciting to be in the audience at a TV show taping!

[Amy P]

Amazing! I'd have loved to have experienced that.

oh Strictly

I completely forgot to ask my question: do they swear you to secrecy about who goes out?

Thanks for reading everyone!

paulh: it's fascinating! What I've noticed about any film set that I've been on, either as an extra or in the audience is just how smoothly a team works, even though they are all freelancers. No one does anything other than their own role, there's minimal discussion or delay. I don't think you'd get that if you put a bunch of teachers together!

Lanza and Sho, I know both of you visit the UK sometimes, you could see what's on.

I meant to put links in the post about how to get tickets.
BBC only, and then not every show - http://www.bbc.co.uk/showsandtours/tickets/

Other UK shows, eg ITV and Channel 4 are at the Applause Store, and they cover the USA and Australia too. http://www.applausestore.com/

Or
http://www.tvrecordings.com/
http://www.lostintv.com/
http://www.sroaudiences.com/

Sho, yes they do swear you to secrecy, and no phones are allowed in the studio, although everyone I told about going wanted me to text when I came out and let them know who went!

that it's not plastered all over the internet (well, it could be, I suppose, I never go looking) immediately after the show is a wonder.

I remember the photos you showed me in Manchester of your Hugo outfit. What a fantastic hobby you have!

It's there if you know where to look, but no one seems to put it directly out, which is nice. In fact the spoilers blog gets so many hits that it has crashed in the last few Saturdays, which shows that people do want to know on the night. Maybe the BBC should think about having live results too, although at the moment that would impact on other programmes.

probably it's just right as they have it now. didn't they have the results show on the Saturday a few years ago? it was just too much Strictly for me on one day. although this year I've seen hardly any of the Saturday night show and none of the results shows

Continuing a theme from yesterday, linking a BBC audience ticket to something I did in October.

4th June 2013. I was lucky enough to have BBC audience tickets for Later...With Jools Holland. This was after series recordings moved from London to the Garden of England, presumably so Jools gets home earlier. It made it easier for me too! Sunshine was staying with me for a few weeks, doing a teacher training placement on unpaid leave from her full time job. The line up wasn't announced until quite close to the date, but if you've ever seen Later... you'll know there's a good mix, something for everyone. And the ticket is free so no one minds. Actually the mix was great, Caro Emerald, Disclosure ft. Sam Smith and Jessie Ware (both have become much more well know since, especially Sam Smith), Bonnie Raitt, Noah and the Whale and... Johnny Marr. We had a great evening, and our corner was closest to Mr Marr. they pre-record the longer Friday night show and then go live to the Tuesday one, some people do the same tracks, other do new ones.

Johnny Marr was promoting The Messenger, his first solo album, and did some tracks from it. For his final track, there were audible gasps all round at the very familiar intro, a spine tingling moment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87N3W6R1icM

Sunshine and I are on the left side of the screen and yes, we are as close to the Godlike Genius as it looks. What an amazing evening and we didn't realise until we watched at home what a camera flirt he is! And, as reported, people did faint - I saw one!
http://twitter.com/Johnny_Marr/status/342964835178381313/photo/1

So, when Sunshine emailed me in June this year to say Johnny Marr was on tour and coming to Cardiff on the 18th October we decided to go.

The single, Easy Money, from the new album Playland has had a lot of air time recently, including being used by both the BBC and Channel 4 as trailer music, so that was well received, but of course the biggest cheers were for Smiths songs. About a third of the set was classics, which I think was a good balance. He could easily just have traded on the past, the audience would have been happy but he's a working musician and time moves on. He was 23 when he left The Smiths after all! However, the sight of lots of middle aged people, mostly accompanied by their 20 something offspring all singing along to Smiths songs was fabulous. His stage presence was commanding without being over the top, he interacted with the audience, (the small venue made that possible), posed carefully for pictures, making sure people got the shots they wanted and genuinely looked to be having a good time, in an effortlessly cool way of course.

Setlist - Cardiff Great Hall (sounds grander than it was!)
Playland
Panic (The Smiths)
Upstarts
Easy Money
25 Hours
New Town Velocity
Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before (The Smiths)
Back in the Box
Speak Out Reach Out
Generate! Generate!
Bigmouth Strikes Again (The Smiths)
Boys Get Straight
Candidate
Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want (The Smiths)
The Right Thing Right
Getting Away with It (Electronic song)
There Is a Light That Never Goes Out (The Smiths)



Encore:
Still Ill (The Smiths)
Dynamo
Word Starts Attack
I Fought the Law (cover)
How Soon Is Now? (The Smiths)

How Soon is Now didn't get the same gasps and fainting response as it had at the Jools recording, people expected it, but those first chords were still a spine tingler. My highlight was Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want, which he seemed to insert on a whim (and later I saw someone who confirmed that it hadn't been on the planned setlist for the evening). Here it is from a studio session: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JU3bogr4oc

But the one that had the loudest singing along from all us oldies was There is a Light That Never Goes Out. It was an amazing moment.

As we left, Sunshine commented how she knew she was at a gig with older people because we were actually watching and appreciating the performance instead of holding phones up to film it, as happens with her generation. (I think that's a topic I'll return to another day this month.)

We'd parked very close to the venue, in King Edward VII Avenue, next to Alexandra Gardens. Which is how I clearly recognised it as the location for Danny Pink's accident at the start of last nights Doctor Who!

A lot of people do seem to live their lives through a viewscreen these days, don't they? It's such a shame as you miss a lot not being in the moment.

Based on these two journals your life sounds quite glamorous! More so than mine, anyway, but that's not hard.

Deb

Glamorous life? It's really really not! Other things I did in October include having root canal work and climbing scaffolding to paint my house. That balances out Johnny Marr and Strictly!

Definitely!

Deb

[Amy P]