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Topic: Last night's recording

Message 1 / 11
StevenApr 24, 2013
 

 
I thought I'd post an update after I was fortunate enough to get tickets for last night's recording for the next series.

It was at Broadcasting House in the Radio Theatre, but so much has changed there that it's worth letting everyone know. Audiences used to queue along Regent Street from the old doors at BH, and an audience services bod would walk along the queue putting a sticker on your ticket so the earlier you arrived the lower your number. Then you were directed to a small holding room, with a tiny bar, where you waited for about an hour then you were ushered into the theatre for the show.

Now you enter through a door further up Regent Street into the brand new part of the building, you go through security, putting bags and coats through the airport style scanner, you are scanned with a hand held scanner, then you go and sit in the newly opened Media Cafe, a large area with big cafe bar, a few seats, photos of famous BBC stars past and present, and a very realistic TARDIS. (Just about everyone tried the door, and had their photo taken with it!)

An audience services bod arrives at about 6-ish and then puts stickers on everyone's tickets, regardless of whether they'd been waiting for two hours or had just arrived. This of course leads to a scrum of pushing and shoving, and elbows in the face from people desperate to get their low number. All rather shameful, and it could be avoided if the security people put the stickers on as people arrived. Much fairer. Then of course we are ushered in the theatre doors opposite the cafe for the show.

(For those new members who have recently asked about how the show is done, well they record two shows. They do record more rounds than are broadcast, last night's episodes ran at 40 minuted start to finish, and during the first show they recorded ten rounds, for the second eleven. The set-up is just like it was for the last TV series, with Nick in the middle, his whistle blower (Trudi Stevens) sitting to his right, and two players on either side.

last night's panel was from left to right, Paul Merton, Pam Ayres, Kevin Eldon and Graham Norton. The first show started at Paul and went left to right with the subjects, and the second show did the reverse.)

Graham was on good form, Kevin tried hard and was amusing, but I think still overawed by the others. Pam was charming as usual, and Paul was Paul. They never stop the recording and run straight through, except for obvious pauses where Nick needs to blow his nose or has a cough, but sometimes even those are left in!

Nick was still as good as ever, although there were a few more stumbles over words, but then who cares?! The producer was new, a Katy 'something', who seemed very personable and in control of the show. It wasn't a classic edition by any means, but was funny, and of course still a legendary BBC show.

Any questions feel free to ask!

 
<<<<   8902   >>>>

Topic: Re: Last night's recording

Message 2 / 11
TroubleshooterApr 24, 2013
 

 
So glad to see Graham Norton continuing to do the show year after year in spite of his career away from JAM. Also great to know Pam Ayres will be in the 2013 lineup!

Lou

 
<<<<   8904   >>>>

Topic: Re: Last night's recording

Message 3 / 11
Tony BaechlerApr 24, 2013
 

 
Hi,

Thanks for letting us know about this. I was asking how the recording was
done because I'm in the US and it's unlikely that I'll actually get to go to
one, but I'm hoping to one of these days. I assume the recording you went
to was for series #66. Did they tell you when it would be broadcast? Do
they have a break between shows? I would assume the panelists would at
least need water or something.

Could you tell if it's really unscripted? I know they're supposed to talk
on any subject without prior knowledge for a minute, but since you actually
saw it live, I have to ask if there is a script or some other written
material other than the cards with the subjects on them. Does Nicholas look
like he's in good shape? I only ask because of his age. I noticed in
recent series that sometimes he has a harder time than he used to reading
the subjects.

Your post was very interesting and informative. I really hope I can go to a
recording session one of these days.

On 4/24/2013 4:12 AM, Steven wrote:
> I thought I'd post an update after I was fortunate enough to get tickets for last night's recording for the next series.
>
> It was at Broadcasting House in the Radio Theatre, but so much has changed there that it's worth letting everyone know. Audiences used to queue along Regent Street from the old doors at BH, and an audience services bod would walk along the queue putting a sticker on your ticket so the earlier you arrived the lower your number. Then you were directed to a small holding room, with a tiny bar, where you waited for about an hour then you were ushered into the theatre for the show.
>
> Now you enter through a door further up Regent Street into the brand new part of the building, you go through security, putting bags and coats through the airport style scanner, you are scanned with a hand held scanner, then you go and sit in the newly opened Media Cafe, a large area with big cafe bar, a few seats, photos of famous BBC stars past and present, and a very realistic TARDIS. (Just about everyone tried the door, and had their photo taken with it!)
>
> An audience services bod arrives at about 6-ish and then puts stickers on everyone's tickets, regardless of whether they'd been waiting for two hours or had just arrived. This of course leads to a scrum of pushing and shoving, and elbows in the face from people desperate to get their low number. All rather shameful, and it could be avoided if the security people put the stickers on as people arrived. Much fairer. Then of course we are ushered in the theatre doors opposite the cafe for the show.
>
> (For those new members who have recently asked about how the show is done, well they record two shows. They do record more rounds than are broadcast, last night's episodes ran at 40 minuted start to finish, and during the first show they recorded ten rounds, for the second eleven. The set-up is just like it was for the last TV series, with Nick in the middle, his whistle blower (Trudi Stevens) sitting to his right, and two players on either side.
>
> last night's panel was from left to right, Paul Merton, Pam Ayres, Kevin Eldon and Graham Norton. The first show started at Paul and went left to right with the subjects, and the second show did the reverse.)
>
> Graham was on good form, Kevin tried hard and was amusing, but I think still overawed by the others. Pam was charming as usual, and Paul was Paul. They never stop the recording and run straight through, except for obvious pauses where Nick needs to blow his nose or has a cough, but sometimes even those are left in!
>
> Nick was still as good as ever, although there were a few more stumbles over words, but then who cares?! The producer was new, a Katy 'something', who seemed very personable and in control of the show. It wasn't a classic edition by any means, but was funny, and of course still a legendary BBC show.
>
> Any questions feel free to ask!
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>


--
Have a good day,
Tony Baechler
mailto:tony.baechler@...

 
<<<<   8906   >>>>

Topic: Re: Last night's recording

Message 4 / 11
Espen KrømkeApr 25, 2013
 

 

 

So glad to see Graham Norton continuing to do the show year after year in spite of his career away from JAM. Also great to know Pam Ayres will be in the 2013 lineup!

Lou

 
<<<<   8907   >>>>

Topic: Re: Last night's recording

Message 5 / 11
DeanApr 25, 2013
 

 

 
<<<<   8908   >>>>

Topic: Re: Last night's recording

Message 6 / 11
Simon B KellyApr 25, 2013
 

 
Thanks for the informative posts, Stephen.

I've been trying to get tickets to JAM for a couple of years now without success. I've been to a couple of other shows at the Radio Theatre and even managed to get front row seats at one of them. I would like to see JAM, though, while Nicholas is still around.

They seem to be videoing the shows as well, as recordings from various radio shows often turn up on the BBC website. In fact, there are three video clips from the last series - two from Episode 1 and one from Episode 8. It's the same panel and they're all wearing the same clothes so those two episodes were obviously recorded at the same time too! For those who us who haven't been to a recording, they're well worth watching. If you're interested, I've uploaded the clips as MP4s in my Series 65 folder:

http://www.mediafire.com/?l81g8fxfppta8

Unless it's a highly topical show, most Radio 4 series are recorded a month or two before broadcast so we can probably expect Series 66 of JAM to start around June...

Simon

 
<<<<   8909   >>>>

Topic: Re: Last night's recording

Message 7 / 11
StevenApr 25, 2013
 

 
--- In just-a-minute@..., Tony Baechler <tony.baechler@...> wrote:

>
> Hi,
>
> Thanks for letting us know about this. I was asking how the recording was
> done because I'm in the US and it's unlikely that I'll actually get to go to
> one, but I'm hoping to one of these days. I assume the recording you went
> to was for series #66. Did they tell you when it would be broadcast? Do
> they have a break between shows? I would assume the panelists would at
> least need water or something.
>
> Could you tell if it's really unscripted? I know they're supposed to talk
> on any subject without prior knowledge for a minute, but since you actually
> saw it live, I have to ask if there is a script or some other written
> material other than the cards with the subjects on them. Does Nicholas look
> like he's in good shape? I only ask because of his age. I noticed in
> recent series that sometimes he has a harder time than he used to reading
> the subjects.

They do record the shows one after the other with no break, but the running time of each episode is about 40 minutes so its not a long evening for them. They do have a full bottle of mineral water on the desk in front of them, so do drink throughout the show. I think it is unscripted and think it always has been, as the panellists usually write down the subject as Nick gives it to them on pads for this. The subjects can be moveable things, because I get the feeling that the last subject of show two was given to Pam because of comments she'd made earlier about one of her more famous poems about teeth!!

Nick looks good for his age, what else can I say? You do have to make allowances for that! They didn't seem to know when it would broadcast.

Steve

 
<<<<   8910   >>>>

Topic: Re: Last night's recording

Message 8 / 11
StevenApr 25, 2013
 

 
All I would say to anyone is to keep applying for the tickets when the website has them available. Sooner or later you'll get tickets!!

--- In just-a-minute@..., "Simon B Kelly" <simonbkelly@...> wrote:
>
> Thanks for the informative posts, Stephen.
>
> I've been trying to get tickets to JAM for a couple of years now without success. I've been to a couple of other shows at the Radio Theatre and even managed to get front row seats at one of them. I would like to see JAM, though, while Nicholas is still around.
>

 
<<<<   8911   >>>>

Topic: Re: Last night's recording

Message 9 / 11
MarkApr 25, 2013
 

 

 
<<<<   8912   >>>>

Topic: Re: Last night's recording

Message 10 / 11
DeanApr 25, 2013
 

 

 
<<<<   8913   >>>>

Topic: Re: Last night's recording

Message 11 / 11
StevenApr 26, 2013
 

 
Yes, well with respect to Simon, Dean's site is the first and the best, and where I will go with any JAM query that I have. Keep up the good work Dean!