Alison and Anne go to Strictly

On Saturday, Alison and her sister Anne went to see the live production of Strictly Come Dancing at the BBC Television Centre at White City. You can apply for tickets to be in the audience, although you are not guaranteed entry even though you have a ticket. So you have to queue. The BBC seem to give priority to production staff, and possibly anyone who works at the BBC can get tickets and they get all the best seats. So they never know how many places will be left for the public. There are forums on the Internet (some with quite horrific stories about disappointments) that suggest you have to arrive much earlier than the 2.30pm suggested, so Alison and Anne were there at 10.45am. There were already 120 people ahead of them!

Fortunately, their places were confirmed before 1pm, so they were able to have break at the Westfield shopping centre in nearby Shepherd's Bush. When they were eventually led in, they were disappointed not to be on the ground floor. But in the end, their seats in the first row of the balcony were absolutely superb. In the photograph above (courtesy of Hello magazine) they are in the dark in the very top left hand corner. They both said the experience was one of the best of their lives. Fantastic views of the dancers, a brilliant warm up by Brucie, wonderful sets and lighting, and hearing the music live. But I still cannot say I would have like to have gone.