Hi everyone,

We have tickets for the show and was just looking for any tips about the day. Ticket validation is at 9am, so we were thinking of going about 7/8am, has anyone else had any experience with the arrangement this series?

Thanks in advance

First - Congratulations on getting tickets.

Second - Have a wonderful time whenever it is you go.

Third - this thread below was from week one of this series so contains information about 'the day' from previous years plus the OP's experience from this year. I am sure you will get lots of useful info from it.
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2179084

Fourth - Someone will probably be in touch ask you if you would be a spoiler mole - please say yes if they do.

Fifth - And this should have been first - Welcome to the forum.

Well done on getting tix .... You are in for an amazing time ...
I was there for the second show... my friend reached there at 5.45 am and we were 100 in the queue ... I would definitely go earlier than 7 ... look towards 6 I think ... to ensure you get in ... think they take in around 400 people for the show ...

Congratulations!
I guess the chance of getting a ticket is not much greater than winning the lottery.

For everyone else, the best tip is to get a job with the BBC. If it's a good one, you're assured of a front row seat.

Linda Robson and Pauline Quirke were in the front row last week, they work for ITV! Karen Hardy who works for the BBC on ITT was two rows back.

I'll end you're confusion, (again)

They are friends of Lesley Joseph, having been in the same comedy drama for years, so either she got them tickets, (contestants get an allocation) or the BBC gave them to them, looking for an "Ooo look who it is!" reaction from the viewers, (there was even one on here), when the camera focused on them.

The BBC know that the viewers can see Karen Hardy several times a week on ITT. No point in putting her in the front row then is there? They like to have "well known people" in view of the cameras, not necessarily connected to Strictly, helps raise the profile of the show. It's how PR works.

Stop trying to score points or did my post need a smiley for you to understand I wasn't being entirely serious?

By the way, the chances of getting a ticket are better than winning the lottery, I wasn't being at all serious about that.

No confusion, you post a number of jibes at the BBC every day, I pointed out from Saturday your post was completely incorrect.

Sweeping statements with no foundation...again!

Carry on!

As has been said, try to arrive earlier than 7 if you can. I arrived at a little past 7 for the launch show and was in the mid-hundreds (on second thoughts, if you want to be just out of the view of the cameras, this may be ideal!) I'm not sure what time you have to queue again for the lives this year, but it doesn't matter where you are in that queue unless you want first dibs on the bar/better access to the loos. The rest of the day's yours. Have fun!

Being serious about this, I appreciate it must be wonderful to get ticket to see the show, but a system whereby you have to get there at the crack of dawn to secure a seat?
It beggars believe that the PBP are expected to have to do this.

I don't see what's unfair about a first-come, first-served system - plus, it allows people who have to go to work or whatever during the day to do so. Strictly audiences are full of people who love the show so much that they're willing to stand in the cold at 4am to get the best seats.

(you'd most likely still get seats if you turned up at midday, mind. Just not the best ones)

Forgive my ignorance, I've never been to a Strictly recording, but why do you have to be there at 9am? What do they do throughout the morning and afternoon sessions to keep people entertained?

Or you could marry Ed Balls!

I think the seat allocation is absolutely disgusting , 400 for the public and 400 for guests and so called VIPs .

It should be 700 to the dedicated fans of Strictly and 100 would be quite sufficient for the guests and so called VIPs . This lot can turn up within an hour of the start, while fans of the show having to get up at some godforsaken early hour, to travel from all corners of the UK and try and be in the queue at least 6,7.8 hours till the doors open .

I was disgusted to see that greedy Linda Robson with a front row seat 2 weeks in a row .

The tickets are validated at 9am, then you have the rest of the day to yourself. It's only in the late afternoon that you have to be back at the studio.

It seems a small recompense for all their hard work that the celebs are rewarded by seeing a friend or two in the audience each week.

You have to understand there are two types of people in this world, those who work for the BBC and the rest of us. If what you say about the seat allocation is true, it hardly surprises me. The BBC would think there was nothing wrong with that.


Small recompense indeed?

I presume then that you know that the fat fee their friend receives for appearing on the programme is donated to charity?

The sight of so many celebs in the audience doesn't annoy me to the extent it clearly does some- to me it's just a part of the show in the same way all those ITV "An Audience With [whoever]" were. It's about raising the excitement and sense of occasion. And if the celebs need paying for that, *shrug.
If the general public had to pay for their seats it would be another matter.

If only a small number of people applied for tickets every year, then maybe I'd be a bit miffed that my chances of drawing one had been lowered by their presence, but since 5m people applied this year, I don't feel my odds have been drastically lengthened.

It depends on how much you want to go to see the show. I've never been interested. Logistically, for many who don't live near London, it could be an expensive nightmare.

I'm quite happy to watch it on TV. I recorded it and fast-forward through the trivia. That's good enough for me. I also save the recordings for twelve months, in case I want a "fix" half way through the following year.
But I'm sure there must be many fans who have been unsuccessfully applying for tickets for over a decade, who will feel aggrieved at seeing some of these "celebrity freeloaders," in the front row week after week and must feel that the BBC are rubbing it in their faces by letting the camera dwell on them.
The BBC seem to be unaware that not all licence payers are obsessed as they are with "celebrity culture."

You can wander round Borehamwood , go to Tesco or McDonald's . Not much to do there at all .

Fair enough if you don't have to go into the studio until later. Plus it's only a short tube ride backinto London

Absolutely, it is worth every second of queuing up, its a fabulous evening.

Im with you on this one

used to be 12pm - which was more than fine in my opinion - why oh why they changed it to 9am is beyond me

Because they can?

We were the guests of an eliminated contestant and we lost our front row seats because Aneka Rice turned up with her daughter and asked for a seat