Hi Guys,

New here

I am after any advice that people can give please.

I have received an email to say that I have been successful in gaining tickets to be in the audience for this Sunday (12 Jan).

I have no idea how long to get there before 4pm though! Has anybody been? What time did you arrive?

I am aware that there is no shelter, so you are completely at the mercy of the weather (which given recent weather is rather worrying!!). I don't really want to have to stand out in cold, wet weather for ages, but obviously also don't want to risk not getting in. I am taking my Mum who is in her 60's and has bad arthritis including in her spine, so standing in the cold for a couple of hours is not easy for her.

What do you think? Any advice, or anything you know would be really helpful.

Many thanks

Do you have priority tickets? If so if you are there before 3.30 you are guaranteed to get in. If not it is on a first come first served basis.

I was at the dry run last Friday and if it is the same you are housed in a community centre which opens at 3 pm. So you would be out of the rain! It is very warm in there.There was pitifully little seating though and very cramped - so much so that we decided to stand outside as it was so claustrophobic! You will be issued with a wristband with a number on it. Last Friday it was red for Priority ticket holders, some orange and green for non-priority. It should say in your email which you have. You enter the studio in number order.

I considered taking my mother who also has arthritis - but she decided she wasn't up to it - but you can phone SRO who issue the tickets to tell them about your mother's condition and they may well save a seat for her and will certainly make sure she is seated with very few steps in the studio itself. Their number is:0208 684 3333.

Hope that helps!

There is no guarantee that they will open the community centre early, we got lucky on Friday but have been out there in previous years in all weather including snow from 10am and not got in until after 4pm!
Earlier you're there the better really, if you have priority still be there early if you don't want stuck in a corner, there were actually 4 colours of wristbands issued on Frid, red, orange, green and blue, being a dress run I presume the majority got in but the live shows are different as there will be lots of celebs in the audience so only the public that get priority are pretty much guaranteed to get in providing they turn up before 3.30 if you have non priority then to have a good chance of getting in then be there very early.
Also toilet facilities are not great, there were some in the centre but after that it was porta loos with steps up that weren't the greatest.

BUT IMO all of the above is worth putting up with as once you're in that studio then it makes it all worthwhile

Hi,

Thanks for the replies and info

We don't have priority tickets, just standard ones.

I am not sure that my Mum can stand for more than 2 hours in the cold unfortunately, which would mean getting there for 2pm. I guess I am going to have to chance it and hope other people don't get there too early and that we don't miss out

Will give them a quick ring as suggested just to see what they say!

IMO it is just so rude to treat people like that. They don't deserve an audience .
It shows a total lack of respect for the people who after all are contributing to their salary.

Hope you get in and have a great time! Let us know how it goes!

It sounds like absolute hell. Why would you want to be treated like cattle to go and see a poor tv show?

Yes I agree, I would never put up with that no matter who I was going to see. Pergatory .
Obviously many people do, or they'd have no audience lbh.

Well we got in last Sunday and had a fab time!

We arrived outside the community centre at 2pm and there was only a very small queue. We were then super lucky as they opened the community centre at 2.15pm!! (This doesn't normally happen!)

So went in and sat down in the warm. We had to stay in the order we were in outside in the queue, but we were able to pop to the toilet in the community centre and get food & drinks in there too.

So sat in the warm with my picnic chatting to the people next to us in the queue.

We got our wristbands at about 3pm ish and were only about number 35 of the normal wristbands so we knew we were getting in!

Went across to the studio at 5.15pm and walked in and the first thing I noticed was how small the ice rink was! We sat in the 5th row back and the view was fabulous - you are so near the ice! Couldn't believe how hot it was in there though! You can sit there in a short sleeve top and you would be fine!

Everybody we met was really nice - other people in the audience and all the crew and people from the audience company too.

There was lots of getting up and down and cheering, clapping, etc - it was great fun!

During the gap between the 2 live shows we were all given a jam doughnut each and there was a bottle of water under everybody's chair.

No photos were allowed during filming but we were able to take a few photos of the studio before the filming began.

Oh and the needing to get there hours before? Rubbish - there were non-priority ticket people sitting in the audience that didn't arrive until 3.45pm and that was even though ours was a night that was an above average turn out so about 40-50 people didn't get in!!
All those that didn't get in got given priority tickets for a future show too, so not a completely wasted journey for them!

Glad you had a good time