Today we went to see the recording of Friday Night with Jonathan Ross that will be airing tomorrow. Not only was the line-up great, contained my two favourite things on telly (comedy and cooking) but it was also fun watching how these shows are filmed. The compere was pretty funny too and kept us entertained throughout the whole process. The only downside was being told off in front of three hundred people for trying to take a picture. I wasn’t even taking a picture of the set, just the hundred and fifteen (yes, I counted them) heavy duty lights on the ceiling. Harrumph.
The show is filmed at BBC Television Centre on Wood Lane. You know, the one they showed at the end of some episodes of Blue Peter? That place. We got there mega early as the friend who kindly gave us the tickets told us the queue can get long and as they give out more tickets than there are seats there can sometimes be a chance of not getting in. We joined the queue at 4.45pm and gave our two spare tickets to a couple who were originally there for Ready Steady Cook. The woman said on the way there she was saying how she really wanted to see the Jonathan Ross show and now they had tickets. I told her she should have wished for a million pounds.
There was much waiting around as the filming didn’t start until 6.45pm but when everything kicked off it was worth the wait. The first guest was Jamie Oliver, talking about his new programme Jamie’s American Road Trip. As with anything he does, he was very passionate about his experience over there and he certainly sold me the idea of this show. I’ll be watching out for it on Channel 4. Then he cooked bollocks. Literally, bull’s balls.
The next guest was 23-year old cricketer Stuart Broad, fresh from the Ashes victory. I didn’t know who he was but he came across as a lovely young man. Did you know it’s called the Ashes because the trophy is a little urn with Ashes in it? Someone at work told me that and then looked at me a little funny when I asked if the ashes were of the founder of cricket. Apparently this is not the case.
The piece de resistance for me was the appearance of Ricky Gervais. He’s one of my favourites, just favourite people in terms of everything he does. And he was on fire tonight but then you wouldn’t expect anything less. He talked about his new movie The Invention of Lying which we’ve been long anticipating and is out October 2nd.
Oh, at the end Mika performed and that’s all I’ve got to say about the matter. Except that they made us dance to it. Bastards.
Catch the show tomorrow at 10.35pm on BBC1. Hopefully you won’t see me in the audience.