Behind the scenes

My bucket list contains, quite low down, watching a TV show being filmed. Even lower down is organising getting a ticket. But one fell into my laptop, as our son is participating in an a capella talent show that Sky was filming this evening at the Troxy in London. 'Arrive at 5.30', said the tickets we were sent a week ago. 'Arrive at 6.00', said an email we got this afternoon. 'Arrive at 6.30', said the email we got half an hour after that.

There were so many people with clipboards and lists corralling the queues on the pavement. All unpaid media interns? We were finally let in a bit before 7.30.

There was a warm-up guy to get us to clap at appropriate times and to keep us smiling through the retakes and poses and long gaps as things were reorganised. The three-and-a-half hours we were there will end up, I guess, as about an hour's television of five a capella bands in three elimination rounds. There were another five filmed yesterday. There will be more tomorrow.

Watching the mechanics of the filming was fascinating but hearing from our son about the many rehearsals Sky has organised, and the coaching each group has received was quite unexpected. The time and the money that goes into such a thing! I had no idea. The smallest group had eight performers, the largest about 16. They have all had their fares paid for each rehearsal. As I post this from the night bus home they are all being put up in hotels.