Strictly spooktacular

***WARNING – this blog contains spoilers about the making of Strictly Come Dancing!***

On Saturday evening Mr W and I were lucky enough to be in the audience for the recording of the Strictly Come Dancing Halloween Special.

It was very exciting! And quite a surprise to actually get tickets considering that I have applied for the last few years and never got anything – must be my lucky month as have also had money taken out of my account for Paralympics tickets. Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket as well!

We got the email a couple of weeks ago and after some consultation with a friend who got tickets last year, we came up with a plan: brunch at home, then pack up some sandwiches and head into town with the aim of getting to the BBC Television Centre for around 1.30pm an hour before the doors opened. The underground seemed to be running very slowly but we got there on schedule and were given blue stickers numbers 36 and 37 – this seemed good until we discovered later that white stickers for downstairs were given out first! We were then told to go away as the stickers guaranteed entry and to come back around 2.30pm to join the queue for security. Had we known this was how it worked we would have come much earlier and gone for lunch at the nearby Westfield shopping centre, but never mind we just tootled off to Westfield anyway, ate our sandwiches in the sun outside and had a quick wander round the shops.

By 2.30pm when we headed back to the BBC the queue for security was snaking along the pavement – it didn’t take too long though and we were soon at the security gate and surrendering our mobile phones. We then progressed into the audience holding zone, where they were showing last week’s show on big screens to get us in the mood for dance! Coats were swiftly put in the cloakroom, a few more snacks consumed, the toilet visited several times and then at 3.45pm when our tickets said the studio doors would open we were told it would be another 20 minutes or so at least before we would be called – cue another dash to the loo! Eventually they started calling people to the studio by sticker number – it was at this point, we realised that maybe blue wasn’t so good after all – and we were escorted to the studio. It turned out that blue stickers meant the balcony and although we weren’t physically close to the stars we decided that our spot wasn’t too bad as we were directly opposite the judges and could also see into Tess’ lair.

After a while the compere for the evening came out and told us a bit about what was going to happen – firstly there were going to be some pre-records, then the live show, a short interval and then the results show. First up was the opening number for the live show – an Addams family themed dance featuring all the celebrities and their professional dancers. The audience’s role was to clap – lots! All through the opening music, through the voice-over right up until the band started – it was a tough job, especially by the third or fourth take! Our dance teacher, Honey-Lee thought that it looked poorly rehearsed – I don’t know what’s she’s worrying about, on the first take Russell didn’t even make it into the final ensemble pose in time!

Next up was a pre-record for The Wanted’s performance for the Sunday night show – this had to be done twice too, but no complaints from me or Mr W on this as I rather like a dancing boy band (they reminded me a bit of Take That!) and Mr W rather liked their scantily-clad dancers! The sound was great too – it was really disappointing when we watched the results show on the television last night. Makes me wonder whether Susan Boyle the other week wasn’t really as bad as I thought she was…

Then just after 6pm Brucie appeared and did a bit of a warm-up with a song and a dance – for an 83 year old he’s amazing and you can see that he just loves entertaining! We then had to pre-record the couples walking onto stage to enable it to be synced with Craig’s special Halloween flying entrance – eagle-eyed viewers will have spotted the continuity issue with Craig sitting at the judge’s desk during the opening dance and then not being there when the judges were introduced by Bruce and Tess.

Before we knew it was time for the live show to start and the stage team went into overdrive shifting props about rapidly between dances. The band and singers were great too and again sounded better than on the television, although to be honest most of my attention was focussed on the dancing! In order of appearance the dances were as follows (for a full review of them, check out Honey-Lee’s blog!):

• Russell & Flavia – Samba
• Chelsee & Pasha – Tango
• Audley & Natalie – Jive
• Alex & James – Paso Doble
• Holly & Artem – American Smooth
• Nancy & Anton – Rumba
• Harry & Aliona – Tango
• Robbie & Ola – Paso Doble
• Anita & Robin – Tango
• Lulu & Brendan – Paso Doble
• Jason & Kristina – Quickstep

I enjoyed them all but some were definitely better than others – my favourites were probably Harry & Aliona’s tango – I loved the bit with the masks – and Jason & Kristina’s quickstep – I think liking her dress helped! Lulu’s flying was great, Holly’s swirling lift looked fantastic especially the way the costume flew out and Robbie’s leap onto the judge’s desk was impressive, as was the look on Craig’s face! I like Anita with her smiley face but I was a bit disappointed with her tango – maybe it’s ‘cos she’s too nice for all the aggression - and Nancy is just plain scary – Alesha suggested she should have just stayed in the prop coffin and she may have had a point!

The show seemed to be over in much less time than on the television and then we had a short break before starting the pre-records for Sunday. First up was a dance with four professional couples – Ola & James, Katya & Pasha, Kristina & Robin and Aliona & Artem – the girls started huddled over a cauldron and charmed the boys who were dressed as geeky backpackers! It ended up with some trickery involving the girls swapping places with the judges. The next pre-record was a foxtrot by the remaining professional couples – Natalie & Brendan, Vincent & Flavia and Anton & Erin – to Witchcraft by Frank Sinatra. However in between that there was an opportunity for the audience to win one of Brucie’ s cue cards signed by the judges by doing some ballroom dancing on the hallowed floor – we didn’t step up to the challenge as it’s been a while since we last did any ballroom dancing, but it turned out to be a jive and so we would have been ok! Made us think we’d like to go dancing again though – any suggestions for good places that aren’t too crowded, other than my living room?!

After the pre-records were done and a bit of faffing around it was time for the ‘moment of truth’ bit! The couples all gathered on the dance floor and stairs and then Tess started announcing who was safe and who wasn’t – it was filmed just like on the television, so a few were announced and then we cut to Claudia for her to her interview bits. But finally we were down to the last two – Audley & Natalie and Nancy & Anton – I thought they might record two endings to avoid leaks but no the BBC rely on the integrity of the audience and we learnt before the rest of the nation that Nancy & Anton would be rumbaing off into the sunset…

And after 5 hours in the studio it was time to go home It was a long but fabulous day – there was lots of waiting around but in true British style it was to the most part, well organised waiting; the show compere was fun and kept us entertained once we were in the studio; Sir Bruce Forsyth is a legend – his jokes are as bad live as they are on television and we couldn’t fast-forward through them, but he does it all with such aplomb you have to forgive him; Tess Daly was slightly aloof and I didn’t like her anymore live than when I watch at home; Claudia Winkleman is as sweet and slightly loony as she appears on the television; the production crew, costumes, make-up, band, etc. were great; the judges were the judges and the dancing was amazing, especially when you consider how short a time they have each week to learn it all. Would I go back again? You bet I would! Roll on next year when I can apply for more tickets and roll on another 3 or 4 years to when I get lucky again!

Thanks to the Beeb for a great experience!