A night at Strictly Come Dancing

October 19th, 2008 | Published in Film / TV, Friends, Travel | 2 Comments

So a couple of weekends ago, me and me ol’ mucker Jill headed off to London to see Strictly Come Dancing, which our mate Christine Bleakley is taking part in this year. If you live in the US, Strictly Come Dancing is our version of Dancing With The Stars.

Now I must confess I don’t really watch Strictly – I’m more of an X Factor person myself (Go Diana!), so I was more excited about catching up with Christine than seeing the show. However, after a couple of beers in Television Centre before the show, I think it’s fair to say Jill and I were excited.

The show was absolutely brilliant to watch. Bruce Forsyth is a legend in my opinion now – he was very, very entertaining and did a brilliant song and dance routine (”Saturday Night is the Loneliest Night of the Week”) before the show started. It was great!

After the live Saturday night show, it was off to the bar for more drinks, and then back to the studio for the pre-recorded Sunday results show. I think I was partly very excited by this point because we were sitting behind Lauren and Abi from EastEnders, and seeing any EastEnders people always gets me excited.

After the Sunday show had been recorded, we headed off to Christine’s dressing room and met her dancing partner, Matt, and some of the other dancers and celebs taking part in the show. After that it was off to a club in London (which apparently had a revolving dancefloor, but by that time Jill and I were too drunk to notice). That’s where the picture above was taken which Jill and Christine find hilarious for some reason. Apparently because I look like a “little boy”. I have had my hair cut short since.

After the club, it was back to the hotel, and I fell in to bed absolutely knackered while the rest of them carried on drinking – I blame the tonsilitis myself! It was a brilliant weekend though, and Jill and I are hoping to go back to see the show again soon.

We also got interviewed for the Sunday results show (Jill fluffed her lines, I was perfect) but unfortunately they didn’t use it. Next time!

Simon

Hmmm. I think maybe that's a bit harsh. While I didn't used to watch Strictly, I've become a big fan of it. And also we weren't production guests in the technical sense. I'm good mates with one of the participants, and she kindly volunteered to give us two of her guest tickets. We took her up on that offer as we were looking forward to catching up with her, and also to supporting her on the show.

I'm not sure I'll be going again actually, but again if I was to, it would be because I would be given a participant's guest ticket. It's not a case of me getting in to the show because I work for the BBC - indeed I think anyone within the BBC would need to apply for audience tickets just like anyone else!

Penny Taylor

Well lucky old you, getting to go to Strictly when you don't even watch it, and talking about going again soon! The rest of us poor peasants have to apply along with hundreds of thousands of others in a ticket lottery and only a few manage to get tickets because of the number of production guests who go along every week (like yourself) just because you fancy it. Next time, think about us poor lot who can't get in and those who have tickets but have to queue for hours to be sure of getting in as having a ticket doesn't guarantee entry.

You might at least pretend to watch the d*mn show before writing a blog about it and annoying those of us who would actually pay to go but aren't allowed in!!!