I was watching the programme a couple of weeks ago and saw that it was coming to Nottingham and decided to apply. I’ve always wanted to go on the show but the last time it was in Nottingham I was in hospital so being well enough to go tonight was especially poignant.
The online application form was pretty straightforward and didn’t take long to complete. There were a number of questions you had to answer about your political allegiances- who you voted for in the last election, which party you would vote for if there were a general election tomorrow, how you voted in the EU referendum and whether you belonged to a political party or have even done things like leaflet dropped or gone door to door for one. The reason they wanted to know all that is to make sure they get a balanced audience that is representative of the country we live in.
On Monday I was out at the shops and just as I was paying for something at the till I got a phone call from a number that wasn’t in my contacts. I wasn’t going to answer but something made me and it was a researcher from the programme. I told her I couldn’t talk and asked if she could call me back in 30 minutes. When over an hour had passed by I thought I had blown my chances but then the phone rang again. After confirming I was indeed myself she went on to ask me questions about my employment status, whether or not I was disabled and things like my nationality. Then she asked if I was to go on the programme what question would I want to ask. Of course at that moment my mind went blank and I rambled on about Bo-Jo’s recent conference speech being nothing but sound bites instead of substance and how poorly disabled people are treated by ‘the system’. I obviously didn’t sound like too much of an idiot as she followed up with an email asking me to provide details of my social media accounts and user names. I guess they have to do background checks to make sure you’re not a complete lunatic or a BNP supporting anti semite that rants on Facebook 24/7!
Hubby had also said he would like to go on the show and knowing how busy he always is with work I applied for him. So imagine his shock when he got a phone call too and had no idea what answers I had given to the questions on his behalf! He must have sounded like a reasonably intelligent human though as he too got the email asking about his social media accounts (which was easy for him as he doesn’t use it! I set him up a Facebook account years and years ago but as far as I know he’s never even logged in!)
The next day we both got another email confirming our places in the audience. Part of the agreement in being an audience member is that you have to provide 2 questions that you would want to ask by email no later than midday on Wednesday. Part of me wanted to think of a really serious, clever question so I would get picked to ask it on the show but then part of me was absolutely terrified to get picked. I asked a couple of friends for pointers and in the end submitted these:
Today I was really excited all day but then I started panicking about what to wear. In the end I decided to go for dark colours to make my pink hair stand out.
The show was being recorded in one of the University of Nottingham buildings which had a full on professional TV studio, probably for tv and media courses. When we arrived we had to show the email we were sent, photographic ID and either proof of being double jabbed or a negative Covid lateral flow test. We were then given a question card as we had to submit a further question on the night as I guess there could have been a breaking news story since Wednesday lunchtime. This was what I wrote:
Before going into the studio Fiona Bruce (the show’s host) came into the room where we were all sat waiting and gave a bit of a talk about what to expect, the dos and don’ts and how the evening would work. She was really nice and down to earth and even shared some anecdotes from past shows that made us all laugh. We were then ushered through to the studio and shown to our seats. Before the panel came on the floor manager did some practice questions to warm us up and get everyone used to having a microphone descend from up above when you were speaking. They then announced who had been chosen to ask their question and although I wasn’t, Hubby was.
Then the panel was brought in which tonight wasPenny Mordant MP, Minister for International Trade, Conservative; Alison McGovern MP, Shadow Sport Minister, Labour; Professor Robert Winston, scientist, doctor and Labour peer; Samuel Kasumu, former special advisor to Boris Johnson on Civil Society and Communities; and Anne McElvoy, senior editor at The Economist.
I managed to take this sneaky photo of them all once they had finished recording.
The first question was on Covid and the report that came out this week. I made a comment about the need for the public enquiry to happen sooner rather than later. Hubby’s question was the second question and was about the NI protocol and the ‘oven ready’ Brexit deal. So we both appear on the show!
On tv the show is an hour long but I thought that the filming would take longer, say an hour and half and then it be edited down but that’s not the case. Pretty much what you see on tv is what happens in the studio and it took just over an hour to film. They didn’t finish filing until after 9pm so they don’t have very much time to get the programme ready to air at 10.35pm. At the end there seemed to be some discrepancy with the introduction Anne McElvoy was given so they had to repeat the filming of the introductions again. And then that was it. The panel left and then we were shown out and as we were leaving they were already dismantling the set. I just managed to get a photo of me and Hubby with the set in the background (the first photo in this blog) and then we were kicked out and walking back to the car.
When we got home we sat down to watch the show and see how many times we could see ourselves! A friend sent me this photo of a Twitter comment which made me laugh as that completely sums up how I felt listening to the bullshit coming out of the Tory MP’s mouth! 😂
I really enjoyed seeing how the show is filmed given it’s something Hubby and I have watched every week for donkeys years. And it was just so nice to be well enough to go out and do this with Hubby. On my good days I’m starting to feel like a human being again but unfortunately I know that usually after having had a good day a bad one will follow. But having 50% good days is better than the 100% bad days I was having earlier in the year.
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