Neil in Ruffled Hair Incident!

I've long been a fan of Drop The Dead Donkey, the satirical comedy set in a TV newsroom starring the lovely Neil Pearson. So when one of my mates got tickets to be in the audience, I was as happy as Dave Charnley after backing a winner at 100/1! On the 10th November two of the Blueshirt tailors hotfooted it down to London. Fortunately we avoided joining the Blind Date queue, and entered London Television Centre, the hallowed home of such great programmes as Mel and Sue's Late Lunch and Have I Got News For You. We are not worthy!

The set was alot smaller than I had imagined. It's just the main newsroom with the wall opposite George being open so the audience can see in. Either side are mini sets for any additional scenes they need. There were TVs and screens so that you didn't miss anything, although the funniest stuff happened when they weren't filming!

Surprisingly the episode was filmed in sequence, so it was like watching a play which kept being stopped for cameras to change positions, scenes to be replayed because of fluffed lines etc. Between takes and before the cast came on, Andy Hamilton (the producer) acted as a warm-up man and kept us all giggling. It took two hours to film the 25 minutes that actually went out the next night, so keeping the audience in the mood to laugh was an obvious high priority. On the version that was transmitted, the soundtrack of the audience's first reaction was grafted onto the second take.

All the cast were incredibly professional but quite willing to muck around between takes. Neil started holding up tabloid headlines to camera such as "Tony Blair paid £100 to see my bottom" and nodding knowingly. Oh, and we want to be this woman:

Mandy Furlonger

as she gets paid to ruffle Neil's hair. Can you believe it? There was a shot where Neil's rolling up his sleeping bag and she had to make him look more bedhead. Why did didn't I train to be a Make-up and Hair Supervisor? Why?

Sorry. Temporary aberration. Anyway, despite feeling a bit cramped by the end of the show, it was a really great evening with Neil being even more gorgeous in person if that's possible. And he wore a dark blue shirt in the second half! This is the last ever series of Drop the Dead Donkey, but if you want tickets to other Hat Trick shows you could try writing to them, or looking out for ads if you're in London in Time Out.