Just a few quickie after being in the audience at Elstree on Friday (and at TV centre a few series ago).

Get there early as you can... I arrived at 9.30am and was validated with number stickers 68 & 69 in the queue. You need 2 people present to get both tickets validated but as my friend was travelling from Bristol, my mum queued with me as my extra body! I parked in Tesco, 30 yards from queue for 3 hours free and was validated by 12.20 so no need to pay! Take something to sit on, Tesco right next door for loos and Tea. Other queuers were lovely and friendly so time flies!

Once validated you can leave. Went to Mum's, who handily lives nearby, for lunch and to get glam! Returned about 4.45 to long queue but it doesn't matter as it's only to get into the holding area where there are portaloos and a small bar. Not enough seats for everyone so if your wearing silly shoes girls, take some flats! Cloakroom for coats and bags but take a scarf into the studio for under your seat as when you come out after you have to queue for your phones and coats outside and it was chilly!

Get glam! We made an effort and got picked out of the bar queue to do an interview to camera for Monday nights ITT! Don't know if it will be broadcast but fingers crossed (although chances are we'll look demented as slightly overexcited!).

The send you into the studio in number order so the earlier you arrived in the day the earlier you get into the studio BUT stand your ground and get out of the door as soon as they call your number is called as people unfairly push in!!

Smile!! They definitely clock how excited and how glam you are and seat you accordingly. We were lucky to be seated between the judges and the stairs with fabulous views and a good spot for cameras. Great interaction with the dancers and Also had little natter with judges which was beyond exciting!! Love Len!!

Up until 15 mins before it goes live you can nip out to the loo. You can take a handbag, scarf and bottle of water in and you'll need it with all the whooping and cheering! We sat for ages once the show was over so got to watch all the little extra interviews they do for ITT!

Obviously there was no results show being recorded this time but when I went before we had about an hours break for a cheeky glass of wine before being called back in.

Whilst queuing for your phones look out for celebs coming out of the dressing rooms and for passing golf buggies, we chatted to Ben Cohen and Hairy Dave and got waves from Craig, Artem, Robin, Antony, Debra and Rachel on their way past. Brilliant!!

If your starving after all the excitement there is a McDonalds right opposite for a late night burger!

You'll have an incredibly fabulous night and it's worth every second of the standing around and achey feet! Have fun! Xx

Thank you so much Ninetypee for sharing and great advice for anybody lucky enough to get tickets for the future shows. It sounds like you had a fabulous experience at the show.

Thanks Ninetypee, great informative post .

Is all that whooping and shouting coordinated by the floor managers ?

Thank you, some great tips there

My pleasure! It really is fantastic!

The floor manager does encourage you but to be honest, by the time it starts it's so exciting you don't really need much encouragement! It's easy to cheer for the upbeat dances but harder for the slower ones. After Tony the warm up guy, Carl, came round saying clap more as his dance was sweet but a little uninspiring!

The hardest thing is not to clap along in time to the music as apparently that puts the celebs off! The band are use good live you just want to clap along!

I was also there on Friday, and will back up all Ninetypee's advice, with the additional note that filming started at 19.50 for pre records, and the live broadcast wasn't until 21.00. So times may be different on other days.

The only part of the day that didnt go well was when they were calling us forward to finally go to the studio. The holding area was really busy, only enough seats for half the people. So when numbers 1-30 were called, some people obviously started moving towards the exit. Only a handful could have made it to the exit before the next block was called, and about 15 seconds later, the next block. The promise of 'Dont worry, you'll go in strict sequential order' was a nonsense, I saw loads filing out with much higher numbers.
That part was a complete shambles, and one bit of panic could have kicked off a crush. Horrible.
So to get a low number, queue early. People at the front were there from 6am ish. If you want a seat in the holding bar, rejoin the queue early after the lunchtime break. I reckon you could still use a folding chair, we were in that queue over an hour.
And to avoid the crush to get to the studio, stay near the entrance of the holding bar. That is also the exit.

We parked in the Brook Road car park, £5 for the day, short walk. Then, when we'd been stickered, we went back to the car, drove to Radlett, about 3ish miles, and had a tesco voucher lunch in Prezzos. Parking in Radlett is 1quid for 2 hours. We changed there too. Staff were lovely.
Then back to Brook Road car park, clashed with school chucking out time, but dont panic, it clears. Just loiter for a space.
Used the same all day ticket that we'd bought in the morning, mooched around tesco, rejoined the queue.
Enjoy!

I totally agree, ff999!

They don't give you enough time to get out once they call your number. We were 68/69 and there was a big guy in front of us with number 189! When we tried to squeeze past he said gruffly 'It's allright, Love you'll all get a seat'! Not much reward for having made the effort to get there for 9.30am!!

However it didn't spoil our enjoyment. I just wanted to lump him but didn't want to ruin my sparkly nails!

I'm trying to find a way to feed back about it. They hype up the sequence order, and the lovely, well spoken, well mannered lady who called the numbers out made a right pigs ear of it. I watched her, she wasn't even looking to see what chaos she was causing.

If you find out how to feed back I'd be interested to know. I have to say that all the staff we dealt with on the day were lovely and made us really feel part of the show. Perhaps if in the holding area it was split up into different number sections maybe?

We had brilliant seats though so can't complain and incredibly lucky to go. Where were you sitting? X

Thanks Ninetypee for going to so much trouble.

Have you been on a long waiting list for tickets?

Edit: Oops just seen the other thread, sounds like quite a while!

I have put this elsewhere - ask a staff member for a better seat if one becomes available - as the show goes on it is unlikely that all production guests will turn up and they will move you if there is availability. Guy next to me ended up in front row - I left it too late to ask, but staff did try for us.

I have to say though that this queuing nonsense from 6am is a joke. What about all those people that have to travel miles and miles to see the show? It would be much fairer if there were a random ballot of ticket numbers for the front row seats to stop all this endless queuing process. Some of us have jobs and things to do you know!!!

Just to add to the comments, I've been several times before (as guest of various friends!) and it used to be worth queueing early at TV Centre as you could see celebs and pros going in and if you were in the first 16 you got front row seats at the end opposite the band. However on Friday, we didn't get to Elstree until 11.40 (parked in Tesco's car park until we got stickered) and were numbers 270/271 but were still assured that we would be seated downstairs. We also parked in the Brook Street car park afterwards, went and had some lunch, back to the car to apply makeup and then back to join the queue at about 3.45 - we were quite near the front which meant we got seats in the holding area. One thing we did that I was very glad about was to leave our phones in the car as the queue at the end to get them back was horrendous. We just went straight in to the holding area and got our coats and were away while the phone queue just got longer and longer.

I don't know what they're going to do if it's raining as the pavement from the holding area to the studio (or the portaloos) is quite difficult to negotiate in high heels, and walking up to the studio will mean getting soaked before the recording starts!

We ended up sitting directly opposite the judges and had a great view. There were production guests in front of us but we could still see everything going on.

One thing that puzzled me was no Stuart Holdham (original warm up guy). I don't know what happened to him - he's been doing Strictly for years.

I was pleased that the audience were told not to clap along in time to the music - I've heard many times from the pros how distracting it is for their celeb, especially when the clapping is on the wrong beat! Also Ben said he was 50% deaf and I noticed Tony Jacklin was wearing a hearing aid so it would be very difficult for them to hear the music with clapping going on as well.

There are about 350 extra seats at Elstree so there really isn't the need to start queueing quite so early. You will only get guaranteed front row seats if you are in the first 30 and you get a great view from almost anywhere in the studio so you can take your time. The only thing I would say is to get there before midday when they start to number sticker the tickets. They also scan the bar code and check your name on a master list, so don't even try to photocopy someone else's ticket as a couple of people in the queue ahead of us appeared to have done.

It was pretty disorganised compared to how it used to run, but I guess these are teething problems and as the weeks go on, they will refine the system and the new staff will know what to do. I did recognise several of the old guard but there were also many new ones around.

It was great to see the new studio and to actually see the band for a change, but they need to move Trev the hat so he's in shot again as it's just not the same not seeing his smiley face behind Dave's.

Great comments Force Ten! Especially about not bothering to take phones in. That queue to get them back took AGES!

I've been twice now once as a guest of a friend and this time in my own name and have applied every year since it started! My first time at TVC wasn't representative as there was a protest outside the bbc so they started letting us in to the bar from about 11.30! That was the night of Jimi Mistry's shock elimination! I've been lucky to have great seats both times. Interesting to know you could ask to be moved, have always been thrilled with the seats we've had so not needed too but good to know.

We were wondering about what they would do in the rain as everyone makes such an effort and you're right about the hill in heels. Treacherous!! Would be such a shame to all get soaked. There was also a wider range of refreshments available at TVC but we got wine on Friday so were quite happy! Wished we'd brought a couple of cans of G & T though!

I understand people work and can struggle to get there but you're never going to stop the early queuers. As I said I drove down from Northampton and was there for 9.30am and my friend came all the way from Bristol. The others in the queue around us had come from Manchester, Bolton and Cornwall and had all left really early in the morning. One lady had even rescheduled her flight as was supposed to be going on holiday on Friday! People are diehard for this show and will always pull out all the stops to guarantee a good seat, I know as I'm one of them, and I wouldn't miss it for the world. Having been it just makes you want to go even more IMHO!

My pleasure and yes, have applied every year from mine and my parents address. Went with a friend on her ticket before but first time in my name.

As a local Strictly fan...please park in the Brook Street car park rather than the Tesco one if possible. If you do have to use the Tesco one, please park over by the street rather than near the shop. It gets a bit irritating when you can't park to do your shopping because of people parking to go to TV shows in the studios!

Please and thank you

Does this mean you will be available to harangue people as they come out for a spoiler if no FMs are attending?

Hmmmm...well, it's possible...depending on the weather and how well I am!

Emergency, very last resort back up then.

Thanks

A very interesting insight into the workings of being an audience member on SCD. I have had my name down every year for years and can't get there. I did get to X Factor once, the auditions - but left half way through as it was mind-numbingly awful and very boring after you'd seen so many samey acts. It's an experience though. I'll keep hoping for SCD. Thanks 90p

Yeah I'd prefer it if I was emergency backup. I'm a wheelchair user, it's not always easy to get out But happy to help if I can!

I can see why you get miffed with the car parks filling up then.

That's so lovely to hear. It makes me not getting tickets feel better about it. It really makes my blooody boil when the show was recorded at TVC and people would rock up at 4pm and get annoyed that they were on the reserve list and they'd only coming from flipping Ealing or something pathetic. I have been lucky enough to go 5 times (everytime as a guest of someone else, never had them in my own name!), travelling up from Exeter each time,always there from 10am or earlier. I don't believe in excuses! The woman who delayed her flight in a legend in my eyes.

Really help advice, thank you. If I am lucky enough to get tickets going to Elstree will be very nerve wracking as I had the TVC routine down to a tee. Sounds like I'd definitely have to hotel it the night before.

Can I just ask, if you get into the holding area with your numbered ticket, does that garantee that you're going in the studio? The crushing to get in made it sound like if you didn't push in you might not get a seat.

Thank you xxx

Yes, I didn't want to sound whingy, but it really can be a problem when shows like Big Brother (and now, presumably, SCD) are on. It's not just for disabled folk - most of the locals have issues with it really.

Well done for getting in 5 times. Wow!! I'm totally with you, everything goes on hold to get there! Hope you manage to go again. To be honest I found the TVC experience a little more exciting but only because it's such a famous venue. Elstree is easier access and there are several budget hotels all within easy walking or 5 mins in car. Lots of facilities too. I grew up in Barnet just down the road so am very familiar with the area but all those who'd come from afar seemed to find it easy enough.

I'm not sure how the reserve numbering worked as we were so close to the front of the queue and made sure that as soon as they started to call the numbers we were near the door to get out of the holding area. That whole part did seem to run more smoothly at TVC but then I suppose it was all more or less under one roof there whereas here it was more spread out and the holding area was more makeshift and less comfy can't remember if at TVC they checked your ticket numbers on the way though the doors out to the studio or not. Would be good if they did that really. It takes so long to fill the studio anyway what difference would a few more minutes make?

Totally see your point. Mum spends quite enough at that Tesco and Costas did well out of us on that morning so I didn't see a problem with parking there but I guess if everyone does it the trouble starts. My local Morrisons used to make you pay for a ticket which was then refunded at the till when you paid for your shopping so perhaps, because of the location right next to the studios, Tesco should think about something similar...