I got to TV Centre at 4:15 and there were already a group of people queuing, which made me feel less of a sad geek. They were far nerdier than me, with their colourful hair, tattoos and Doctor Who quoting. So I appeared, for once, to be relatively normal. Phew! I was joined by Husband Jamie, Uberfan Chezza from the Mitchell & Webb MySpace Top Friends fame (if you can call it that) and her fellow MySpace uberfan Emma.
Later, some of my bookshop people turned up and were a bit further back in what ended up as being a very long line of people.
After not dying in the heat as there was shade we eventually made our way into the bar and had the almost obligatory chocolate. I stared at the giant Dalek and wanted to talk to it but thought it best not to draw attention to myself. Skip an hour and we’re going into the studio. The one up the staircase this time, although they all look the same to me. God I am like totally racist to studios…
So we try to work out what the sets are for, I fiddle with my notebook, and the warm-up appears. He is a man called Jeff. Or maybe Geoff. It doesn’t matter. Jeff was a bit rubbish but not as bad as a certain awful Aussie chick from last year. I feel sorry for warm-ups as they’re always the act nobody came to see and the audience just want to get on with it. Jeff/Geoff did all the usual warmuppy stuff like finding an American to take the piss out of, a man with Lord Of The Rings hair to talk to, and some braying young ‘actress’ to banter with. The actress in question hadn’t got the range and I think her films may have involved either a lot of poshing or a lot of pushing, if you get my drift. Sorry, actress, if you’re reading this. Jeff/Geoff also talked to me but I was in a not-bothered mood. We spotted Toby Davies filming the audience and then David and Robert came out. In wigs. David’s was “the Dead Ringers Tony Blair wig” allegedly. Rob did his nervous excited dance he does at the start. So onto Studio Sketch 1…
I don’t want to spoil the new material so I won’t. But this was from the recent third series of That Mitchell And Webb Sound (Episode 2, fact fans) so any fan reading this would have heard of it. It’s Lindsay Davenport. Buy the CD if you don’t know and want to know. There were the usual hitches and having to “reshoot from the top” moments, plus a nice little visual gag in close-up…
Olivia Colman arrived at the side of the stage at this point. Still very very pregnant and smiley. Onto VT Segment 1, which contained a few radio sketches, some bits from the Drill Hall rehearsal show and some totally brand spanking new bits:
The Dawn Of Bronze, from the recent radio episode 1.
Some new colourful characters that I will keep schtum about.
Wedding News, from radio episode 1.
A new thing that was filthy.
A new ‘Behind the scenes’ bit.
Part one of a new series of three sketches that was very funny.
Another new sketch that had Toby, Mark Evans and James Bachman in it and lots of smut.
Some more ‘Behind the scenes.’
We spotted Gareth Edwards. He was wearing a suit but had no opportunity to point to the fire escapes or high visibility black shirts.
(random picture, because I haven’t used it before)
Studio Sketch 2 followed that. It was from the Drill Hall rehearsals and had a lot of extras in it i.e all the usual suspects. Including Mrs Webb.
VT Segment 2 was as follows:
Part two of a new series of three sketches that weakened through repetition.
The second one with those colourful new characters.
The return of a character from series one that we like,as tried out at the Drill Hall.
A TV version of the classic ‘All the football all of the time’ from the second radio series (episode 1).
A new sketch that didn’t really work.
A very silly new sketch that did work.
That old character again, from that Drill Hall rehearsal again. Twice.
A bit more ‘Behind the scenes.’
Studio Sketch 3 was the one we couldn’t see as the set was round the back but it was our favourite. It’s brand new and one of the weirdest things they’ve ever done. It’s very yellow and a bit Look Around You meets Fingermouse. James plays a guitar. I shall say no more.
VT Segment 3 was
Bad Writers (from TV series 1) returning with an American court room drama. Which was new and very funny and came in two parts.
A new sketch that resembled something from the first series.
Those new colourful characters for a third time.
A sketch idea from The Drill Hall that goes all ‘Behind the scenes’ at the end.
Another Drill Hall sketch. There are a lot of these but that was kind of the point of the rehearsal.
Warm-up Jeff/Geoff came back on between sets and I wrote some more notes. I have no shame. Then the final studio sketches were prepared, on the set right in front of us, which was kind of Newsnight-y. They merged some of the recent radio material with stuff from The Drill Hall to use this set for a series of sketches that involved David, Olivia and Rob. Halfway through that we got the final (4th) batch of VT:
Part three of a series of three sketches that fell into the Little Britain Repetition Trap but was understandable as it wouldn’t be good value for money to only film one of them.
The return of most people’s favourite character. Sadly underwhelming.
Some more ‘Behind the scenes.’
A long sketch that worked better as audio with stage directions, involving a concept from series one.
The evil teacher: Little date? sketch from radio episode 2.
They then did the final sketch on the studio set and David played Rob’s part from the radio. Rob got the phrase “isolated statistics” wrong. Then it was the end. Rob spotted me and gave me a little wink and a wave. Well I am The Official Unofficial Scary Fansite Man.
(not my photo. Thanks, Google Images)
It was a strong collection of material, over all, with only a couple that I would ditch. The studio stuff went well (no repeat of the occasional tedium of last years’s Snooker Commentators) and we had good seats for viewing the pre-recorded scenes. Roll on next week!
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