Yesterday we went to watch the filming of the Sharon Osbourne Show in London. Brad and I had been invited along as guests of the family of Lucy Pearson, who were appearing on the show. For those of you who don't know of Lucy, she is 6 years old and several weeks ago she was dying from end-stage heart failure, having been born with nearly every heart abnormality that it is possible for a baby to be born with. She had been waiting for 8 months on the waiting list and time really was running very short for her and things looked very bleak. Then she got the call that was to not only save, but totally transform her life and she was rushed to Great Ormond Street Hospital to undergo a six hour heart transplant. The transformation in Lucy is just incredible and she is suddenly now full of colour, lively, full of energy, able to run around and so well that it is almost unbelievable.

The Sharon Osbourne Show had arranged to interview Lucy's family before she got her transplant. The hope was that by appearing on the show, it would help to raise awareness of the desperate shortage of organ donors and the situation of the families of children who are waiting. They had already filmed Lucy and her family for a full day at home when she got her call and once Lucy was discharged from hospital it was decided to still go-ahead with her appearance, so as to show the amazing transformation that organ donation can bring about.

So off we headed to London for a second day running (I really should live in London the amount of time I spend there these days!). The plan was that we would meet up with our fab friend Clare at Waterloo Station and all make our way to the studio. Then we would report to the doorman at the front of the queue for the audience seats and be ushered through! Well the meeting at Waterloo station all went to plan but then, having decided that Clare and I wouldn't be able to walk the 3/4 mile to the studios, we opted to get the bus. So we waited and waited and waited.....and waited. No bus appeared. Did a bit more waiting, and more, and more.....still no bus. We even resorted to taking photos of ourselves at the bus stop to relieve the boredom.

An hour later we concluded that the bus really wasn't planning on assisting us with our journey towards our momentous TV audience appearance, so decided to find a taxi rank. Strangely enough there was a long queue at the taxi rank. A queue that proceeded to grow and grow, whilst the road was totally deserted without a taxi insight. This indicated one thing...a security alert. Eventually we found out that the whole area had been closed due to a suitcase left under Westminster Bridge. This left only one option....walking. So with a determined air and we headed off for the studios. Funnily enough, as we passed the entrance to the station we bumped into Lucy's family, all just arrived off the train from Southampton and decided we would all make our way down together.

I was expecting South Bank TV studios to be really impressive looking, but actually it looks very much like any other city office block. There was a massive queue already curling its way along the pavement and after waving goodbye to Lucy's family (who were going in through reception) we marched up to the head of the queue and announced with an air of great self-importance that we were "with the Pearson family". However, for some reason (clearly a technical error) the red carpet didn't immediately appear infront of us, nor we were ushered in through some back door with big beefy security guards to keep the crowds from mobbing us. In fact (oh the indignity of it all!) we were told to "wait over there behind the Gala Bingo party" haha!

There then ensued a wait. A long wait. A very long wait. An incredibly long wait. Did they not know who we were?!!! We ended up taking more rather boring photos of ourselves with against a brick wall (who says showbizz isn't glamarous?) After nearly an hour I really couldn't stand any longer and my IV's were also due. Clare and I decided to play the CF card, which did get us just inside the foyer door to sit on a couple of old seats behind the security desk. I proceeded to do my IV's (that got some interesting looks) and Clare proceeded to quiz the security staff on whether they reckoned "Shazza" would like her letter inviting her for squash and biscuits at her new Uni accomodation (quite a normal conversation for Clare, honest....)

Finally 2 hours after we had arrived the word was out that we were going to be let in! I guess I can forgive the fact that they still forgot my red carpet at this stage considering things were running very late. I felt really sorry when I heard that they were going to have to turn away about 200 of the people towards the end of the queue with tickets because too many had turned up! We were very hungry and thirsty by now but finally we were in the building and it was all rather exciting, even though you couldn't see much except big wharehouse-type coridoors and lots of black curtains. We were directed through a set of curtains and there was the stage, with the audience seating infront. It was much smaller in there than I had imagined and the set was incredibly glamarous looking with chandeliers and fancy sofas and pictures on the wall.
I did feel quite important to see we had designated seats in the second row back for our group due to our connection to Lucy's family. I wanted to take pictures, but sadly these were all banned.

Once everyone was seated, we were given our complex instructions on the pivotal role we were to play in the proceedings. This basically consisited of being able to clap. But not just clap, to start clapping when indicated and to stop clapping when indicated. I must admit, I did feel a bit overqualified for this role, but in showbizz I guess you have to be prepared to muck in haha! Whilst all the camera crew and production staff then busied themselves with preparations, we were then subjected to probably the worst warm-up comedian I have ever seen and that (please god) I will ever see again. Unfortunatley he was to continually make appearances throughout the entire filming (during breaks etc). His jokes might have been funny 30 years ago during the quiet season on Worthing Pier, but he clearly hadn't realised that a continual repetoire of jokes about old people, gay people, disabled people and any other minority group in existence, doesn' really suit an audience in 2006. Not only did he manage to be un-funny to the point of extreme irritation, but he made sure he offended nearly every sector of society in the process. It was the kind of toe-curling, cringe-worthy comedy that you might find yourself subjected to by a distant family relative on Boxing day afternoon after half a bottle of sherry.

It was very interesting watching the show being filmed. There was quite a small production team and camera crew involved and it all seemed much more basic in real life than a show appears on a TV screen. There were quite a few retakes of each part, as Sharon kept fluffing her lines and then going "Oh F****!" There was also a somewhat sleep-inducing interview with a member of the audience who had given birth at her local bus stop. She had been flown down from Scotland along with three week old baby to make her TV debut telling Sharon about the baby's momentous arrival at a said bus stop. However she only seemed to be able to answer "Errr yes", "Errrr no" or (most popular) "Errr dunno" to every question Sharon asked her. It has to be said it wasn't that exciting a story to begin with, but thanks to the small range of answerable options, it was worse than watching paint dry. In the end even Sharon had enough and walked off exclaiming "Oh for goodness sake! This is worse than pulling teeth" (which to be fair it was). Sadly I think the woman lost her chance to appear in the Bill on the strength of her performance.

It was great watching Lucy and her family being interviewed on the sofas. Sharon started by introducing each member of the family and, upon reaching 3-year old Ben said "And here's the baby of the family...little Ben!" "I'M SUPERBOY!!!" announced Ben very loudly in reply!! Next they played the film footage taken before Lucy had her transplant, which was very moving indeed. On returning to the studio, Sharon turned to Lucy and said "And Lucy.... What have you got now that you didn't have before?!" "A BOUNCY CASTLE!" exclaimed Lucy, which wasn't quite the answer Sharon had been looking for! It was wonderful to see Lucy wearing her Live Life Then Give Life T-Shirt on the show. It's the first time one of our T-shirts has ever been shown on national TV and was a very proud moment for me. Bev, Lucy's Mum, had wanted to wear hers too, but wasn't allowed to due to TV regulations, but Lucy flew the flag for the LLTGL campaign with true style...Go Lucy!

Finally, two hours after filming began, we were all ushered out onto the street again. I did leave with a feeling that audiences for these shows are treated with contempt. We never even got offered access to a cup of tap water from when we joined the queue at 3pm until we left the studios at 7.30pm. Plus that two hour queue with elderly people and disabled people not even offered the chance to sit down anywhere...thank goodness it wasn't pouring with rain! I know they are offering the chance to watch a TV programme being filmed but it would be nice to feel that they appreciated the audience a bit more (lets face it, they couldn't film without one!) and all of our non-stop clapping and being askd to cheer and laugh at all the right moments. However, seeing Lucy and her family being filmed made it all worthwhile and despite being very achey and exhausted today, I'm glad I went. The show goes out tomorrow (Wednesday) at 5pm on ITV1, so make sure you tune in!