Filming at Pinewood

[Oneborneverydecade]

We've been offered tickets for the recording of a child friendly TV show. Plan is to take DS11. Pinewood is an hour's drive from home.

The email says the following:
They've issued more tickets than they have seats
Security gate opens at 4.15 but a queue may form beforehand so arrive early
No food allowed but sandwiches available to buy
Expected to finish by 8pm

It sounds like a ballache doesn't it...leave school early, drive an hour, no guarantee of getting in and (probably) slightly rubbish sarnies for tea.

Has anyone been and can tell me it's actually a smooth process?

I just did this today...

Have you got priority tickets? If you have you're guaranteed a seat so long as you check into the venue and get your wrist band before the cut off time. If you want the "best" seats, get there early and get in the queue - seating is done on a "first come first served" basis. Getting there early means you may well be waiting outdoors for a while no matter the weather till they open the marquee.

We had priority tickets, got in 10 minutes before our check time finished, straight into the marquee, and still got pretty good seats.

Non-priority ticket holders are not guaranteed seats - you turn up, wait, and once the priority seats are filled, they sit as many of you as possible, but chances are some will get turned away - at least ten people did this afternoon. I believe that you are then guaranteed priority tickets the next time you come, but you've still had a wasted journey.

I didn't see anywhere serving snacks or drinks - we were both hungry and thirsty by the time we left - and toilets and toilet breaks are thin on the ground.

We loved it and had a great time - but we'd been before and knew what to expect. Allow plenty of time to get there - it can take a while just to get in and get parked.

I’ve been, queued and got turned away but I live very near so it wasn’t much of an inconvenience. Think I underestimated how oversubscribed it would be and didn’t get there early enough.
If you don’t get in, there’s a lovely pub in Fulmer you could stop at for dinner.

If it's Taskmaster, I went to the adult version last week and although it said there would be stuff available to buy, there actually wasn't so I'd take food. We got there at 10.30 but the carpark didn't open until 11.30 so the people arriving on foot got to the front of the queue. We still got in though so I would aim to arrive by about 2.30/3 at the latest. It's a very well organised process once you are in the queue though - you get a wristband and then can sit down/mill around/go to the loo etc then get called up in small groups by the number on your wristband

Thank you for the replies.

It's Taskmaster Kids. We don't have priority tickets unfortunately.

@RenegadeKeeblerElf do you really think we need to get there at 2.30/3 for a 5pm start?

@GreeboIsMySpiritAnimal glad you had fun!

The lack of food info is especially helpful as DS11 gets really hangry

Well it depends on how much you want to be sure you get in. The earlier the better really, but in the other hand if you don't get in you get priority tickets for another show so if you don't mind getting turned away you could arrive later. Also the earlier you get there, the better your seats. Taskmaster kids is obviously a new show so may not be as popular but when I went to main Taskmaster last week there were over a dozen people in the queue at 10.30 for filming starting at 2pm. By the time the doors 'opened' at 12.45 the tickets had all been given out and they were turning people away.

We went to taskmaster yesterday, was brilliant. Definitely get there early though- we arrived at 11 and ended up being ticket number 38, I believe anyone who arrived after 12 was turned away.

We also went a few years ago for the same show in the evening and again arrived a few hours early and got in. It’s a must for taskmaster unfortunately as it’s so popular. Definitely worth the hassle though and the staff are brilliant.

You can take food into the waiting area but no the studio, and you aren’t allowed to take bags into the studio either. We took lunch in a small lightweight bag, then binned the rubbish and folded up and pocketed the bag. You can take 1L of water per person in a plastic bottle into the studio.

Thanks again, I'm really glad I posted as we'd have almost certainly had a wasted journey otherwise. Now need to decide if it's worth the effort

@Oneborneverydecade did you end up going? How was it?

@RenegadeKeeblerElf we didn't go. Normally I'd let the organiser know, but I felt that those that did go would have a better chance if I didn't

We were there on Thursday! Everyone who arrived got in with a few seats to spare. It was fun but long, didn't get out until 9.30! And the food they mentioned in the email wasn't available. Had to make a dash for McDonald's as soon as they let us out.

@AinmÁlainn I'm glad it was fun. Who is the new Taskmaster?