"I rest my case."

It's not what you know, it's who you know at the BBC.

To be honest, it's that long since I've seen her on TV I wouldn't have recognised her.

She was clearly considered more "front row" than me!!

That would have been worth a letter to the DG. They might have given you some more tickets. I bet half of what goes on is hidden from those who take ultimate responsibility at the BBC.

I went a couple of weeks ago. The first person in the queue arrived at 12.45am. I got there around 4.30am. Most people who were from out of London stayed at the Ibis hotel which is across the road. You'd probably be fine to get in the studio if you arrived by 6.30/7am. The tickets are validated at 9am and the first 28 people in the queue get to sit in the two rows next to the flight of stairs that the dancers use to go up to Claudia. Once your tickets are validated you are told to come back at the studio around 3pm.

Please don't tell me you were Melvin's guests??. Why couldn't she sit at the back.
Can you recognise her now or all plastic now??.

How horrible for you! Had you been one of those queueing from the wee small hours? And what kind of seats were you then given instead? If they were poor seats I'm hoping they gave you a free pass for a future show -sans getting up at sparrow's fart!

Not if they were the guest of an eliminated contestant, no.

Presumably because it gives people time to go and have a break/rest after queuing? Makes a lot of sense to me.

The most important tips I could give you are the following,

1- bring your own chair, the ones they provide are for children and are ridiculously small, they will give you an instant back pain and you will be hitting the person next to you everytime you applaud, and they want you to applaud and scream for everything and everybody.

2- Make sure not to drink any fluids before the show starts, they will call the Police on you if you empty on of the aforemnetioned little chairs.

3- Eat hearty before attending the recording, you will starve to death. Sometimes they will provide you with some crackers, not guaranteed, these crackers are much smaller than the chairs, make sure to bring chocolates or any sweets that you may need so that you don't pass out.

4- Do not take a peak into the Green Room, that is the big tarp where the celebrities, pro Dancers, Family and Friends go once the show is finished to have a drink and socialize after the show, you will be quickly turned away with brutal cruelty, bitterness does not beging to describe the hopeless feeling of being so close and yet so far away.

5- Make sure you close the toilet doors when you are allowed the 5 seconds to use it, for some reason they do not lock very well and quicly make a go to the open position, the posibility of you showing all your trimmings to the World is a real one. These accomodations are as tight as the chairs, I do not recommend anything else other than peeing.

6- The line to pick up your cellphone once the show has finished is as long as the one for the new Pope to be announced, if you survived the small chairs, this will finish you up.

7- Last but not least, Did I mention how small the chairs are?

Other than that, you will have a wonderful experience that will be become part of your most cherished memories, You will also begin to appreciate how confortable everything around your home is.

Informative AND amusing.

Thank you. And these posts do answer the question I've sometimes mused upon when looking at the audience: "Given the public members of the audience have experienced festival-levels of discomfort and queuing throughout the day- how do they manage to look so glam?" Clearly the ones dressed comfortably are 5 rows back

I had tickets for week 2 and as we were travelling from Somerset we booked in to the Ibis, which is just over the road. This is very handy for going to the loo while you are queuing.

We were in the queue at 3.00am which meant we were numbers 7 & 8 and had front row seats opposite the band and singers. The time passed really quickly as everyone was really excited and really chatty.

There is a 24 hour Tesco round the corner where you could go and get coffee or go to the loo. There is also a MacDonalds opposite Tesco where we got breakfast.

After your ticket is validated you don't need to go back until 3pm but you will need to eat before you go back as we only had a carton of juice and a kit kat after they finished the live show.

Unfortunately as we were there the week the dance off didn't happen, the filiming of the results show took ages and we didn't leave until just gone 11pm. The seats do get really uncomfortable as you are all squashed together and they are hard.

It was a fantastic night and as I have been trying for tickets since season 1, I couldn't believe I was actually there and so close to all the dancers. Aljaz came and shook everyone's hand after the live show and we also spoke to Gorka and Danny.

E

Thanks everyone, we have tickets for tomorrow and we're very excited!

AmyJames how fabulous, I believe Abigailsmom has sent you a private message about possibly being the spoiler provider for the spoiler thread tomorrow. Would you be willing to do that?

Have a great time Amy and yes pleeeease be our mole!

Being equally serious too for a moment, and dealing with just the general public's seats: I've thought about the whole ticketing/queuing thing quite a bit as I've also entered the draw, and have pondered on just how much Herculean effort I'd be prepared to put into a) getting in and b) getting a decent seat.

Big caveat being -of course- that I don't know all the organisational requirements that go into putting on a live tv show and they are no doubt a living nightmare. My suspicion is that it's all a lot more complicated than it seems to us onlookers, but on the small off-chance that it isn't- here's my idea:

We know that the BBC has to issue more free tickets than there are seats available because there are often people who can't go (we see them on here offering their tickets, and there must be many more) but they don't want empty seats. I've often wondered by how much the BBC oversubscribe their ticket allocation- is it a huge 50%, or 10%, or 2% -whatever- and is it based on knowing what their average dropout rate is?

Even if they're super sensible and they work it out on average dropout rate, and it is -for the sake of argument- 20 more people than the 400 seats, if you were desperate to make sure that you got in, you'd queue early. But then once people learn that everyone else is doing that too, then the queuing just gets earlier and earlier, through no fault of the BBC's.

So I suppose that raises the question of why the validation time is 9am, since that's the time people work backwards from, and could it be made later. But that's where I am totally ignorant of the backstage requirements, security, safety, need for working space without the public getting in the way etc etc.

But even if they moved the validation time to, say, midday I have a feeling that people are so extremely keen to a) get in and b) get a good seat, that some would still get there at sparrow's fart to ensure it happens, so everyone else has to follow suit or risk disappointment. I have had tickets for other BBC shows before and had no problem at all with queuing, so the system itself isn't inherently wrong- it's the popularity of the show and the enthusiasm of the public that's creating the situation.

So the only way I can see of solving the problem of the long and uncomfortable queuing (surely something which would preclude older people and those with disabilities) is that seats should be allocated with no extras allowed. If there are empty seats they could be filled by those who were allocated the seats right at the back underneath the overhang which are barely visible to the tv viewers whether full or not.
Or, is the BBC not allowed to sell tickets? I'm guessing not, since that would be the simplest solution and they're not using it.

Anyhoo- here's hoping that my post is cosmically fated to test my musings and I am gifted a ticket in the next draw


ETA- blimey- just seen my post. Damn long. That's what happens when I'm being serious. Apologies.

I really don't think the over-subscribing needs to be that much. It's TV and "a few people can be made to go a long way," given how they can be "shot." It might surprise some how small the audience is for some game shows.
With Strictly where for the most part the audience is in the dark, one row more or less around the whole studio wouldn't be noticed.

I think with the BBC it's a case of, "what's most convenient for them." It's a seller's market so they can do what they like.

Hope you got in OK, have a fantastic evening.

Your dissapproval of the BBC, in seemingly every aspect, is so strong that it beats me why you continue to watch their material. Surely there are other broadcasters you could watch that don't provoke your ire so much.

The size of the audience will be governed by all sorts of factors, which when looked at through jaded eyes may seem to be "what's most convenient for them", but are in fact just simple logisitcal constraints.

The studio is the size it is. The primary factor in the selection of the studio will be to do with the needs of making the desired TV programme. The BBC are primarily programme makers not theatre producers. There will be a maximium number of people that can fit into a given space alongside all the stuff and staff that are needed to be there.

If you stop for a moment and just think through the complexity of such a live show and the facilities that all need to be in the studio space: cameras, lighting equipment, sound equipment, a band!, props for now , later and that have been finished with, in studio communications and people galore. Then you add in an audience. One of the constraints will be health and safety. How many people can be safely contained in a space and just as important how many can you get out safely in the event of a disaster.

The TV audience are in effect another prop. That's why you don't pay for tickets. (In theory you should have to produce a television licence to get a ticket) You go as a participant not as a customer. The audience are there to provide ambience. The BBC are not in the business of putting on in-situ public performances. If people want to see dance shows there are plenty of them to go to, thanks largely to SCD, it has to be said.

The BBC have in the past tried to increase the availibility of tickets so that more of their customers (licence payers) can go to an SCD show. That's what Wembly week was about. The trouble is it didn't really work for the show and for TV.

Oh and by the way being a BBC executive does not guarantee you tickets to popular shows. My best friend has been a BBC executive for 18 years and has tried throughout the history of SCD to get tickets. Not a sniff.

I believe the over subscribing used to be a lot (when at TVC) - one weekend when I went I met a couple that had tickets numbered 1200 (and something) - before the stickering process. So that told me they had sent out over 600 pairs of tickets for the TVC audience (public allocation there was about 350. ).

I believe the elstree public allocation has risen a bit so even if there is say 600 places for the public and they haven't changed the number of tickets issued then they oversubscribe by 100%.

Wasn't there a discussion on here in a previous year, when someone on the inside stated the number of seats that were available to the public and those the BBC retained for "people they liked?"
It seemed out of proportion. Didn't the subject make the press at the time?

I believe so but can't remember what it said.

Wow- that's interesting; that's a lot of over-catering.

What is the stickering process and does that improve things any?

Well done on getting tickets.. Out of interest for those of us who haven't done it yet how long after 3pm do they start recording bits of the show. I presume they do the "Sunday Show" pro dance and music guest before the Saturday show starts at 6:30?

If I was lucky enough to get tickets then I would be spending the morning in full geek mode trying to find as many filming locations around Borehamwood and of course visiting Tesco is a must as that was where three of the original sound stages stood

When thinking about oversubscription and no shows, it is important to bear in mind that no shows always go up for something that is free. People will apply with a fairly low expectation of getting a ticket and nothing invested in it if they do get lucky in the ballot.

You only have to think about the number of 'no shows' in hospital out patients, doctors and dentists to get an idea of how little people value or commit to something that they think of as cost free.

I used to work in the travel industry. I must have welcomed in hundreds of flights of holiday makers. I don't think there was ever an occassion when a flight came in with a complete manifest. We would always get at least a pair of no shows and sometimes as many as a dozen or so on a 180 seat flight. And that was for something people had paid good money for.

My guess is the drop out rate is higher than we might expect. And perhaps people who work in the industry and who are in the studios during the week for work or who have to face up to their bosses and colleagues if the flake out at the last minute are more a more reliable way of ensuring a good audience turnout.