A Thought

Why is it that Karl Marx, one of the fathers of socialism, is buried in the only London cemetarywhich charges an entrance fee?

So Unbelievable

Another week, another episode of The Unbelievable Truth being recorded. And again I was there (this is starting to get repetitive!). It was a Sunday this time, so there was plenty of time to get there without having to combat the rush-hour commuters. C and I arrived in plenty of time to join the group of people waiting outside, before the real queue formed behind us. We were let into the foyer promptly at 6pm, as the ticket said, which bade well for the rest of the timings being bang on time.

So the real waiting began.

Normally I would have spent some of thins time seeing if I could spot any potential panellists entering the theatre. This time my surprise had been somewhat spoiled by David Mitchell having posted on Twitter the previous day who the panellists were going to be. Nevertheless, they were all good names and so although I knew who to look out for, I was still excited to see them. First to arrive was Miranda Hart, who snuck through the doors as we were waiting outside. Sue Perkins arrived just as we’d been let in, followed not long after by Arthur Smith, who tried to get in through the wrong door. Finally Sean Lock walked in to complete the set.

We were let into the theatre and took some of the unreserved seats in the front row. I had thought when in the foyer that it seemed more empty than usual, but sitting and looking at the rest of the auditorium confirmed this, as there seemed a lot more empty seats than usual. Not that that was going to stop us enjoying the show – we’d just have to laugh even more than normal.

At 7.30 producer Jon Naismith appeared on stage to begin the introductions. Regular readers of my blog may have noticed that I’ve perhaps been focusing rather too much on this and the ‘genuinely funny joke’, so I’m going to say little apart from it was all good, as always. I will, however, point out that Jon preceded his jokes with a comment on how he was aware that some of us who go to these things regularly may have heard his jokes before (I wonder where he got that idea?), then proceeded to tell both the Doctor and the POW jokes (I still like the Goldfish one best!).

The panel were then introduced on stage, along with David Mitchell and the scorer, Abby. And so the recording began. It was another single recording instead of the two shows like last time. But I really didn’t mind as it was far and away the best, most enjoyable recording of The Unbelievable Truth I’ve been to. It seemed like hours of fun, and I’m glad I don’t have to select which bits make the edit for broadcast.

As usual, I won’t say much about the content, to save spoiling it for those listening later. However, I will say that it began well, with Arthur Smith completely missing the point and spotting lies not truths. He did get the hang of it later. There was quite a bit of ribbing of David Mitchell for not knowing everything, with much comparison to the all-knowing Stephen Fry and QI. As there’s been more than a few mentions of The Unbelievable Truth on QI recently, it seemed a far exchange.

Finally I must mention the buzzer incident – half way through the recording the buzzer stopped making a noise. The panellist’s lights were still lighting up on the box, but with no sound (not very useful for radio!). Very quickly someone leapt on stage to fix it, I think by replacing the box that makes the noise with another one. And so the game was able to continue. I’ve never known anything like that to happen before though.

And so, sadly the evening ended and we all made our way home. I could gladly have watched another show with that panel, but will have to make do with listening to the broadcast of the series which begins this evening.

Oh, and making the fourth and final recording on Thursday!

There is nothing so strange and so unbelievable

Less than a week later, and it was time for another recording of The Unbelievable Truth. Last night’s recording was for two episodes, so began earlier, which meant arriving earlier at the venue. On arrival, a notice on the door said no entry until 5.30pm (which is fair enough, as that’s what it said on the ticket), so I stood behind a couple of other people who were already waiting and watched the queue form behind me.

While I was waiting I did see three out of the four panellists arrive. First was Clive Anderson, who walked past the front of the line of people waiting, smiled and said hello, then went in the front door. Next up I spied through the gap between a pillar and a tree someone wearing a shirt in a very familiar shade of pink, who turned out to be Graeme Garden. He snuck in through the side door. Finally the diminutive figure of Lucy Porter squeezed past the queue, saying excuse me, before reaching the front door.

5,30 came and went and we were still standing outside in the cold. [note to self - take gloves next time!] Finally we were let in to wait in the warm foyer and thaw through. We took up our usual position by the doors to the theatre and settled down to wait. Whilst we were waiting we could see what was happening on stage, as the second set of doors had been left open. Photographs were taken and we watched the panellists take their seats. We took some time trying to identify the mystery fourth panellist from the tiny part of his curly haired head which we could see. We settled (rightly) on it being Chris Addison. We also had a little wave from Clive Anderson, who could obviously see us looking through the window from where he sat.

Eventually we were allowed to go into the theatre, so we chose some very good seats on the front row and waited a bit more. Eventually Jon Naismith, the producer, came on stage and began his introductions. I was a little confused as not only did he not tell us what to do in the event of the theatre catching fire (again!), or that if in any doubt that a remark is funny we should laugh, he then proceeded to tell a different genuinely funny joke from last week! Although he did then follow that one up with a second, being last week’s joke. He introduced the panel and host and the recording was underway.

Again, I won’t say much about the recording, apart from telling you to listen out for the line about how female penguins “put out for rocks”. I also spotted a few truths, including one about the Lunar Society (but then that is  a part of local history I’m very interested in).

After both recordings had finished, we waited around to say hello. However, all of the panellists seemed to have somewhere else they wanted to be as they all headed out of the building as quickly as possible. However, David Mitchell did hang around long enough for me to hear someone trying to persuade him to be in a Big Finish drama (which I thought was a great idea, and probably should have said so at the time).

The Unbelievable Things People Believe

Another year, another set of Unbelievable Truth recordings.

Because the clever people at BBC Audiences seem to be issuing tickets via email now, we didn’t have the problem with them being sent to the wrong address like last year. So C and I arrived promptly for the first of four recordings. Unlike previous years, when the six programmes were recorded in 3 double sessions, there are two dates with only one show being recorded at each. It’ll be interesting to see whether it’s eight completely different panelists between the two single recordings …

But I’m getting ahead of myself, and need to focus on this, the first. As you have to arrive early at these things to get a seat (tickets don’t guarantee one), there’s lots of time spent waiting around. We spotted a couple of faces who we recognised from the recordings last year, as well as Tony Hawks, who walked through to the theatre not long after I arrived. So that was one name on the panel – we wondered who the others might be.

Eventually we were allowed to go into the theatre, and took some very good seats on the front row (as usual). As is also usual, the show didn’t start on time, but eventually Jon Naismith, the producer appeared and began his usual introduction (and no, he hasn’t found a new ‘genuinely funny joke’, before you ask!). He then introduced the panelists, who were Simon Evans, Milton Jones and Johnny Vaughan, as well as Tony who we’d already seen.  After the host, David Mitchell, and the scorer were also seated on stage, the show began.

I won’t post much about the content of the show, to save spoiling it for those of you who want to listen to the broadcast. I did spot at least one truth that no one on the panel got (I know my standing armies!) and spotted a few more that they did. I think I’m getting better at not giving away when I do spot a truth – it’s dangerous sitting on the front row! I was amused by the introduction to Tony Hawks which mentioned his sitcom Morris Minor’s Marvellous Motors, making out that no one remembered it (I do – it also starred Una Stubbs and a pre-Doctor Who Camille Coduri as Morris’ love interest!). I was less amused by one panelist’s habit of insisting he was always right, talking over other people and trying to change the rules for his benefit. Maybe this won’t come across on the broadcast version, so I won’t dwell on it.

Overall it was a good fun evening. I look forward to hearing the broadcast when it arrives. The trailers that were also recorded suggested that the series would begin on 23rd March, so listen out then.