When I was very young I applied for tickets a few times, I remember getting the big card tickets in the post with the LWT logo on them. I think the first one I went to was one of the ITV Telethons, I think 1990, I remember the excitement going into the studio (think it was around lunchtime on the second day) and seeing the set that I would have already seen on TV that morning and the evening before. The one thing I remember was a strong smell of aftershave and assuming it must be Michael Aspel's.
Obviously there were only certain shows that would allow children in the audience, so other ones I went to were a kid's Christmas special of Blind Date and the long-forgotten You've Been Framed spin-off Beadles Hotshots also at
TLS, plus the even longer-forgotten BBC answer to Gladiators, Happy Families, which was made at, I think, probably Wembley Arena. That one in particular had a lot of waiting around which irritated everyone I'd dragged along, but I was happy enough watching the cameras and everything being set up.
I went on a couple of tours as a kid as well. I was very lucky to have a guided tour of
TVC when I was about 6, I was already fascinated with TV at the time and a relative of someone my dad worked for worked there. I saw Smith and Jones filming something outside the front gates before I even went in, and later saw rehearsals for Tomorrow's World, The Two Ronnies and live Blue Peter, it was amazing. A few years later I also went to an open day at Elstree they were advertising on Newsroom South East as a sort of "it's your BBC so come and take a look" thing. Got to have a walk around Albert Square (and then just down the road to see Grange Hill) and they had a few of the stars there, my mum got a photo with Dot Cotton.
More recently I've been to quite a few, including QI, HIGNFY and The Last Leg at TLS, The IT Crowd and Would I Lie to You at Pinewood, Thronecast at Sky Studios (at some recordings you get a drink but at this we were fed as well, and then shown the episode before the recording), You Have Been Watching and Adam Buxton's Bug at Riverside, The Horne Section at the London Palladium and 10 O'Clock Live and Up the Women at TVC.
Also at TVC I went to a bit of David Walliams' 24 hour panel show thing for Comic Relief, which means I can say I've been present for an episode of Whose Line is it Anyway with Clive Anderson, Tony Slattery and Josie Lawrence. Mine was the penultimate audience group, arriving very early on (I think) a Sunday morning, so instead of arriving to the normal queue I just turned up an was ushered in and found a seat. When it was time for the final audience rotation, those of us who wanted to stay were put to one side in case there were spare seats left over. In the end there were enough for all of us (including ones that had stayed for the full 24 hours) and I remember when coming back in walking past Richard Curtis.
I've been to a couple of recordings of Taskmaster, which were great fun, one from the first series at the Clapham Grand and then a "taster night" for both the second and third series at Fountain where they did a run-through of an episode each for the two casts using tasks that weren't going to be used in the full series. Wish I can remember anything about the tasks!
The other one I've been to quite a few episodes of was TV Burp, at Teddington, TV Centre, and (I think??) TLS. Was really enjoyable because they'd go through the episode pretty quickly with as few pauses as possible. And then when doing the inevitable pickups at the end, Harry would do bits of his stand-up act in between if a laugh was needed going into the next line.
