Anyone been in a TV audience...

[Matleavemadam]

and what was it like?
I always think being in the audience for Celebrity Juice looks fun but wonder is there a lot of waiting around and sitting through retakes that makes it less entertaining?
Have never gone to anything due to my location (would require travel and overnight hotel stay) although do apply for Strictly every year as feel that would be worth the travel, never been successful though :(

A LOT, for work. They're fun but they go on for years. I imagine with all the queuing it must be a ballache. Go to the loo first and bear in mind you might not get in because they're always overbooked.

The retakes thing depends on the show, some people fluff their lines more than others!

I used to go and see quite a few things pre-DC - mostly radio comedy shows, but also a Top of the Pops Christmas special (1998, I think) and an episode of the first series of Dinnerladies.

TOTP was mostly being herded about by production staff and pretending to be enthusastic about shit songs. But it was a bit of a bucket-list moment anyway.

I've also done The Apprentice, You're Fired. Was such fun. They are pretty slick with the filming - think about 90 minutes which they condense down to the half hour show. What surprised me was how squashed we were and how we were basically in a hangar - it looks much cosier on screen.

My dad overheard two people on a train who had been to see strictly come dancing the night before. He started chatting as you do. They had a good time however, there was a lot of waiting because of all of the set changes and costume changes.

I've been to TFI Friday and X factor. Both are more exciting watching them on telly.

I've been to a few Britains Got Talent auditions. We were at the one Susan Boyle was on! Lots of queuing as they give out more tickets than there are seats so it's full so you needed to get there early to be guaranteed getting in. They do lots of filming of audience reactions in between the acts, so we had to do standing ovations, cheers, boos etc when there were no acts on then they edit these in after. I loved it but dont think I could be bothered with all the hanging about these days...

Several episodes of Have I Got News for You, but haven't been for about 5 years. You have to get there early to queue, as they always overbook. We did get mince pies when it was snowing on the queue shortly before Christmas once!

They film it right through, and then do a few retakes, but not many. It's fun guessing which bits will be too libellous to be broadcast - from memory the show as filmed straight through is about 1h15, so they can cut down to half an hour.

Also been to recordings of the News Quiz, and I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, back in the days of the late lamented Humph.

I used to go to a few. Best was Never Mind The Buzzcocks. Really funny!

Strictly. Loved every minute. Didn't feel like much hanging around at all once we were in the studio as there was always something to watch and the whole process was fascinating to see from a different perspective. Was bitterly cold queuing outside though!

I went to see Basil Brush being recorded in Shepherd Bush when I was a Brownie in about 1972

Sorry, don't remember much except getting the afternoon off school

Went on The Chase even though Ive never really watched it. Went in a party organised by a mate who loves this sort of thing. The queue was huge -snaking in front of the television centre in shepherds bush. But it was all good natured and everyone was treated the same. There was a high level of security with bags checked etc which surprised me but on reflection probably necessary these days. The staff did their best to ensure that the audience was kept amused with a warm-up man and bradley Walsh speaking directly to the audience and telling is what was happening. There was enough information to keep us amused .
There were no sandwich eating antics sadly as they were banned for some reason. We could only take in wrapped sweets which was annoying since our snacks had to go back to the car. But maybe other people would have had time to eat before arriving - we were travelling from west midlands so cut it a bit fine.
It was an enjoyable experience and probably would have been even more so if I was a fan.

DS and I went to see Ninja Warrior UK being filmed in Manchester a couple of years ago.

Huge hangar-type building (obviously, to fit all the obstacle equipment into), and we had arrived quite late so had rubbish seats where we really couldn't see much. However, as people were leaving, they kept taking sections of the "far away" seats and moving people up the "premium" section, so after a couple of hours we ended up in prime position. I guess people were leaving due to having trains etc to catch, younger kids getting tired etc.

DS loved it, but we didn't know that you could bring your own food and drink, poor DS was surviving on the free Haribo that the compère was throwing to the crowd. And he was so thirsty but I couldn't find even one drinks machine.

Rochelle was hardly to be seen, only came out when the competitors were actually "on" and didn't even glance at the crowd. Ben Shepherd and Kammy (or "hammy" as DS kept calling him) were visible all the time and seemed to do more actual work - often doing retakes, for which we'd all be encouraged to whoop and cheer during. The "crowd participation" was actually exhausting - you had to go nuts for every competitor and there was a very hard working compere working between competitors to keep everyone gee'd up (hence the free Haribo being thrown like confetti). DS and I were shattered by the end!

The giant foam finger was DS's favourite thing, but alas, he must have dropped it in McDonalds at the train station on our way home and we didn't notice until we were walking back to the car carrying our milkshakes.

It was filmed almost a year in advance but we did tune in and we saw ourselves in the crowd a couple of times - and yes, DS could be seen eating the Haribo

Just a Minute was fab. However one of the panellists was Wendy Richard and she didn't endear herself to anyone. Ultra competitive and petulant.

I've only been in the audience of Neremy Kyle Show. The most waiting around was to go into the studio. After that it was quite well done and not many retakes so it wasn't too bad. But about 4 hours for 1 hour programme x

Oooops! That should have said Jeremy Kyle Show x

Went to a Big Brother eviction, years ago. It was still Davina presenting. It pissed it down, all night. Ended up driving home in just underwear, as I was drenched!!!

sunnyday1976 3 times is good going considering the amount of people that apply each series! Why did you have to queue that early...and wait presumably around till 7pm when it starts?

I've flukely got tickets twice and my mum once, but given the odds don't expect to get them again. The first time we went it was at TV Centre in London and got there about 11, got tickets validated and it was soon time to go in. The other times were at Elstree, and we queued and our tickets were validated, I think, late morning, so could then leave, come back around 3 and wait around quite a lot. It all goes so fast, everyone in the queues around us were lovely. Quite a few bits were pre recorded before the show to slot in later, or in the Sunday show. We didn't need to get there that early but got really good seats each time, it was only because we woke so early, and it was all fab!!

I've seen Britain's Got Talent years ago. Was a first audition stage so they had us filming reactions before we'd even seen the acts - "pretend you've just seen someone really amazing!" "Now boo like you hate them" 😄

Was good fun, don't remember too much hanging around. But then we did avoid the hours of queuing in the snow by (slightly fraudulently) claiming our tickets were VIP

Yep- QI twice, Graham Norton 3 or 4 times, Room 101 once and a Top Of The Pops Christmas Special.

There’s the odd retake, and with GN there’s a longer break between the chatting and the music, sometimes the song is performed twice if there’s some kind of cock-up. At TOTP Girls Aloud had to film theirs twice because Cheryl was crap made a lot of mistakes, and Gabrielle Aplin did her song twice as they filmed two different intros in case she got the Christmas No.1. And obviously with GN/QI etc they cut a lot out so the filming part lasts much longer than the actual show!

TOTP and Live & Kicking a few times when I was a lot younger. Saw some great acts and some less great ones! It's pretty standard that they may ask to record your reactions again, eg "can you do lots of clapping and cheering again now please?" but on the whole really well managed and not too much waiting around. As I remember it, anyway! I don't think I'd have cared if there was, I was just keen to see the bands a lot of the time and as a teen you're a lot more forgiving of a delay 😉

Graham Norton (years ago when he was channel 4) QI and Top Gear (clarkson, May etc). The latter was a whole day of standing about in an aircraft hangar. Tea and biscuits were served halfway through. James May was serving everyone tea from an urn

GN and QI go on for about 2 hours then are heavily edited back. For GN they were plying us with alcohol in the queue beforehand as there was quite a bit of audience interaction and I guess they needed inhibitions to be dropped!

Wogan, that's showing my age

Went a few times to watch Dinnerladies being filmed. That was really interesting. Very talented cast and lots of funny improvisation and corpsing. Feel very lucky to have seen Victoria Wood at work. She would change little things as they did retakes. Also really interesting to see the set.

Went to see Dad's Army: the lost episodes being filmed last March. The episodes will be broadcast on the 50th anniversary later this year. Each scene was filmed twice but the actors, who were well known but obviously chosen for their likeness to the original actors, were so good that it wasn't a chore. There was a warm up guy between the scenes. He wasn't as funny as he thought he was. The short quizzes to keep the audience occupied were fun but easily won by the Dad's Army appreciation society.

It's really, really boring. Lots of hanging around. Can't leave once it's begun. Can last much longer than you expect due to various factors. That's why, if you look, many audiences are composed of pensioners who've been drafted in by the coachload on the promise of a day out with free lunch.