Friday 8 February 2013

The News Quiz

Last year I was lucky enough to see recordings for a sketch show and two sit coms, previously I'd seen the Now Show but last night was my first panel game.

Back in November, despairing at my chances of getting Cabin Pressure tickets, I also applied for a News Quiz recording. Months passed, it was clear I'd got nowhere with Cabin Pressure and I forgot exactly what date I'd requested for the News Quiz. It fell completely out of my mind.

So when an email arrived from the BBC a couple of weeks ago, I assumed it must be one of the newsletters I'm subscribed to. One comedy double-take later I realised my mistake. So I found a hotel bargain and booked my train tickets.

I did a little research on the internet beforehand about how early the queue starts and my paranoia soon grew. I was lucky enough to have some company last night and my "get there before 6:30" advice soon changed to "the earlier the better".

At 5pm I joined the queue and, for about 15 minutes, the queue consisted of two of us. The BBC have made some changes and they now let people in a lot earlier than the time on the ticket, something I was exceedingly grateful for considering the temperature yesterday evening.

We were let in at 5:15 but I lost out on a number 2 sticker because they'll only sticker a ticket for people who have arrived. I lingered outside with a growing band of others waiting for sisters, husbands and friends.

There was some disagreement over how best to describe Portland Place (apparently "head towards Regents Park, look for the glass building framing a church spire" is no good, the better description is "the massive building lit with blue light") but, after convincing the security guard that I definitely didn't have anything sharp - no, not even keys - we were in.

Number 20 & 21!

The biggest difference between the News Quiz and everything else I've seen is that there were no retakes. None. Not the linking bits, not cuttings, nothing. The whole recording was long, we didn't finish until 9:15 and I'm very curious to see what's made it onto tonight's show.

The panelists were Jeremy Hardy, Mark Steel (who looked like he might be coming down with something), Katy Brand and Daniel Finkelstein. It was fantastic fun and everyone in the audience enjoyed themselves no end.

I know that News Quiz tickets aren't easy to get but it comes highly recommended. I fully support Mark Steel's proposal that there must be room in the digital spectrum for a sweary version of Radio 4. Now that I've seen the sweary version of the News Quiz I just don't want to go back.