The One Show 2nd May 2019

 On Thursday May 2^nd we travelled from Liverpool to London to be part of the audience for the One Show. Back in September 2018 when Fame U.K. Reunion launched I’d missed out on being part of the audience. I’d contacted the BBC weeks beforehand to see how to get tickets for the audience only to be told they don’t normally have audiences. Then the day before transmission they contacted me asking to help them find Fame fans for the audience!

I live in Cornwall and despite what felt like hours trying to make the journey work for myself it wasn’t meant to be. Besides as we were launching someone needed to be on hand to deal with all the enquiries and messages to the Facebook page, of which there were many. Actually my phone nearly exploded that night!

So I contacted other fans that lived near London and arranged for them to attend. However, this time I was determined to be there.

Originally Loretta Chandler was just going to be part of the audience with us so I decided as we’d be travelling together we’d go First class. However after Erica Gimpel dropped out of the Reunion and Loretta stepped in to be part of the Concerts she came to the U.K. early and was then part of the cast appearing on the show.

We spent about 5 hours travelling there and back just to record a 30 minute show but it was great to be part of the cast return to U.K. TV.

 

 It may have been pouring with rain outside but inside the fans were meeting for the first time. It’s a really small studio and there were probably about 30 of us there. After being briefed by an assistant to basically make as much noise as possible we were taken to the studio. The presenters Matt Baker and Angelica Bell were practicing their entrance which was fun as they were wearing leg warmers and headbands. There was a lot of excited energy as the presenters and then the cast made their way through the crowd. Michael and I hid at the back as we had no desire to actually be seen. A video featurette, which did show me from the original film we made, was followed by the cast and Sue Hinds being interviewed. It was wonderful to be part of.  The audience had been asked to submit questions but time was short and only Dennis Haddock got to ask a question. Really the Fame cast could have taken over the whole show.

When the show ended it was a mad rush to get back to Euston Train Station to catch our train and we didn’t stay for the audience photo however our train was delayed slightly so we could have stayed after all. The cast were travelling back on the same train although they were in a different first class carriage. It felt bizarre standing at Euston Station surround by the cast of Fame as we waited for our train to be announced. I couldn’t help thinking why they weren’t being mobbed! In the end only one fan who had been at the One Show came and asked for photos.

 

As we’d travelled with Loretta’s sister Cloretta, Loretta travelled back in our carriage and we had a fun couple of hours. Loretta was fun and we were pretty loud. I kept seeing the faces of some of the other passengers and thought that any minute we’d be thrown out of the carriage but we weren’t. We arrived back in Liverpool tired but happy. What a great way to start the Reunion Weekend!