Tonight's the Night Taping Show 2
So yesterday I braved night buses (and nearly got stranded in Glasgow for my troubles) and departed tropical London to attend the second taping of Tonight's the Night.
We started the show with a pre-record for a future instalment. John appeared wearing a fabulous red shiny suit which I loved. The jacket had a black trim including a black strip with red sparkles which glittered like rubies in the light. It was completely awesome. He teemed the jacket with red trousers with a black trim and a deep burgundy black shirt. My inner fashionista was impressed.
We went straight into a VT. The lady being set up was a police woman who loved performing and was a huge fan of Lesley Garrett. We saw clips of her performing in a choir and she had a fantastic voice. In the set up she thought that her work was filming a training video on dog handling. John (or "John Barrington" as he was calling himself) was there as the person in the cushioned safety suit for the dogs to attack. Only he was pretending to be scared of dogs. John was fully hidden in his suit and protective helmet so only his eyes were visible and he put in false teeth. She seemed most amused by John and his "fear" of the dogs (at one point she told him to shush when he was talking during the "recording") and to be honest it was a bit hard to tell whether she just clocked him straight away. She was certainly shown keep looking at him and didn't seem too surprised when John revealed himself. Before that though he did actually have the dog attack him and gnaw on his sleeve. Brave man. John offered her the chance to come to TtN and sing with Lesley Garrett.
We next see her in the VT being put through her paces by MD (and new dad-congratulations!) Matt Brind. As she finished singing Lesley Garrett surprised her.
Cut to the studio and Lesley Garrett appeared looking amazing in a champagne coloured dress. Not sure how to describe it it was sort of a beige/champagne coloured top covered with a holographic motif which looked amazing under the lights with a full floor length champagne coloured silk skirt. She looked fab and very shapely. The woman being surprised (as you can tell I'm hopeless at retaining their names-sorry!) also looked lovely in a turquoise and silver sequinned number with a fab hair do with silver flowers showing through her blonde hair. They then sang The Impossible Dream as a duet and very lovely it was too. And Lesley Garrett is such an incredibly down to earth person- she was so warm and lovely.
John then got changed (Emerald green suit with black sparkly trim on the collar-he said it made him look like a leprechaun) and presented the next VT clip.
The next VT clip was a wedding themed surprise. The bride wanted to surprise her new husband (who was a cancer survivor) with a special dance routine at their wedding. Apparently just after he finished chemotherapy he went to London to see Mamma Mia and that was his way of saying "business as usual", time to move on with his life. So his family and bride wanted to surprise him with a Mamma Mia dance routine at the reception. John set it up so they could practice with a choreographer and then surprised them with a trip to Mamma Mia so they could rehearse on stage in front of the cast. On the day in question John appeared at the wedding and surprised the absolutely dumb struck groom before they launched into the dance routine. I do agree with one of the ladies I was at the taping with that it would perhaps have been more awesome if they had just launched into the dance with no preamble and John then appeared to capture his reaction but it was still a really lovely moment. The groom was just so stunned that everyone was there dancing for him. The whole thing was really rather moving. I admit I welled up a tad. And the dad (who in the VT wiped out after tripping on the bride's dress) was awesome- he was so into it. John then surprised the newly weds further in the studio by gifting them a honeymoon to the Greek island Mamma Mia was filmed on. Awesome.
With the pre-record bits done John changed again back into what I described last week as a dove grey suit but is clearly blue (even the sparkly trim flashed blue sparkles in the light) what can I say I'm clearly blind although in fairness I was a lot nearer the front this week. We then kicked off filming of what I guess will be the second episode.
Each show looks like it's starting with John singing "I Gotta Feeling" which is such a great song. They'd already filmed portions of the episode (The Michael Bolton duet and the two young kids who met Kevin Pieterson and Miley Cyrus) so it was straight onto the first audience surprise. Which turned out to be someone on the end of the very front row-a police inspector who had raised a very impressive £20,000 for his local school. He had also amusingly solved some garden gnome stealing crime! His wife had nominated him on the grounds that he did everything for everyone but never took time for himself. He was incredibly overwhelmed at being surprised and was so humble. He said that in school he had been told that he had never lived up to his potential and that he would never amount to much but he had tried to make a difference in his community. A lesser woman watching might have burst into tears at this. (Well OK I welled up a bit... OK a lot.)
John than sung "Lean on Me" accompanied by his family and friends (some of whom were carrying garden gnomes which John later signed).
The final section of the programme was John surprising an army pilot. Cue John dressed in army flight suit get up and many Top Gun references (loved him striding towards a guy (both wearing their sun glasses) and them high fiving each other and then slapping each others backsides as they passed.) And John did look very handsome in the outfit. He surprised the pilot (who had been set up by his mother) as he landed in his plane and asked whether he would come to TtN and sing with the cast of Grease. The cast (the T-Birds) had been amusing us before the show by appearing off the bus already dressed in their costumes and just generally wandering back and forth a lot ensuring that they got noticed! Anyway the pilot performed "Grease Lightening" with the cast and he was quite the showman and a nice little mover. That done (needed to be done twice because of a smoke issue) it was time to close out the show. John sang Take That's "Rule the World" accompanied by a local choir.
And with that the recording was over but they showed the VT clips of the sections that had already been recorded and John stayed and watched them with us and really seemed to enjoy the audience reaction to the clips.
John was in high spirits bantering with the crew and the people taking part in the show (he'd clearly been teasing some guy who was part of the "Lean on Me" family and friend's choir who got his own back by patting him on the bottom on stage and then kissing him on the cheek as he left-ha!). Loved him bantering with his family. He introduced various family members to the audience and then asked where one uncle was as he couldn't see him. The answer? "Silverstone". John-"that's him out of the will."
Fun recording with no less than 3 changes of outfit (although his hair stylist could maybe do some with some screen shots for continuity purposes of the pieces that he's filming out of sequence-hair was quite different last week to this week), some very moving pieces and John on top form. Another great recording.
We started the show with a pre-record for a future instalment. John appeared wearing a fabulous red shiny suit which I loved. The jacket had a black trim including a black strip with red sparkles which glittered like rubies in the light. It was completely awesome. He teemed the jacket with red trousers with a black trim and a deep burgundy black shirt. My inner fashionista was impressed.
We went straight into a VT. The lady being set up was a police woman who loved performing and was a huge fan of Lesley Garrett. We saw clips of her performing in a choir and she had a fantastic voice. In the set up she thought that her work was filming a training video on dog handling. John (or "John Barrington" as he was calling himself) was there as the person in the cushioned safety suit for the dogs to attack. Only he was pretending to be scared of dogs. John was fully hidden in his suit and protective helmet so only his eyes were visible and he put in false teeth. She seemed most amused by John and his "fear" of the dogs (at one point she told him to shush when he was talking during the "recording") and to be honest it was a bit hard to tell whether she just clocked him straight away. She was certainly shown keep looking at him and didn't seem too surprised when John revealed himself. Before that though he did actually have the dog attack him and gnaw on his sleeve. Brave man. John offered her the chance to come to TtN and sing with Lesley Garrett.
We next see her in the VT being put through her paces by MD (and new dad-congratulations!) Matt Brind. As she finished singing Lesley Garrett surprised her.
Cut to the studio and Lesley Garrett appeared looking amazing in a champagne coloured dress. Not sure how to describe it it was sort of a beige/champagne coloured top covered with a holographic motif which looked amazing under the lights with a full floor length champagne coloured silk skirt. She looked fab and very shapely. The woman being surprised (as you can tell I'm hopeless at retaining their names-sorry!) also looked lovely in a turquoise and silver sequinned number with a fab hair do with silver flowers showing through her blonde hair. They then sang The Impossible Dream as a duet and very lovely it was too. And Lesley Garrett is such an incredibly down to earth person- she was so warm and lovely.
John then got changed (Emerald green suit with black sparkly trim on the collar-he said it made him look like a leprechaun) and presented the next VT clip.
The next VT clip was a wedding themed surprise. The bride wanted to surprise her new husband (who was a cancer survivor) with a special dance routine at their wedding. Apparently just after he finished chemotherapy he went to London to see Mamma Mia and that was his way of saying "business as usual", time to move on with his life. So his family and bride wanted to surprise him with a Mamma Mia dance routine at the reception. John set it up so they could practice with a choreographer and then surprised them with a trip to Mamma Mia so they could rehearse on stage in front of the cast. On the day in question John appeared at the wedding and surprised the absolutely dumb struck groom before they launched into the dance routine. I do agree with one of the ladies I was at the taping with that it would perhaps have been more awesome if they had just launched into the dance with no preamble and John then appeared to capture his reaction but it was still a really lovely moment. The groom was just so stunned that everyone was there dancing for him. The whole thing was really rather moving. I admit I welled up a tad. And the dad (who in the VT wiped out after tripping on the bride's dress) was awesome- he was so into it. John then surprised the newly weds further in the studio by gifting them a honeymoon to the Greek island Mamma Mia was filmed on. Awesome.
With the pre-record bits done John changed again back into what I described last week as a dove grey suit but is clearly blue (even the sparkly trim flashed blue sparkles in the light) what can I say I'm clearly blind although in fairness I was a lot nearer the front this week. We then kicked off filming of what I guess will be the second episode.
Each show looks like it's starting with John singing "I Gotta Feeling" which is such a great song. They'd already filmed portions of the episode (The Michael Bolton duet and the two young kids who met Kevin Pieterson and Miley Cyrus) so it was straight onto the first audience surprise. Which turned out to be someone on the end of the very front row-a police inspector who had raised a very impressive £20,000 for his local school. He had also amusingly solved some garden gnome stealing crime! His wife had nominated him on the grounds that he did everything for everyone but never took time for himself. He was incredibly overwhelmed at being surprised and was so humble. He said that in school he had been told that he had never lived up to his potential and that he would never amount to much but he had tried to make a difference in his community. A lesser woman watching might have burst into tears at this. (Well OK I welled up a bit... OK a lot.)
John than sung "Lean on Me" accompanied by his family and friends (some of whom were carrying garden gnomes which John later signed).
The final section of the programme was John surprising an army pilot. Cue John dressed in army flight suit get up and many Top Gun references (loved him striding towards a guy (both wearing their sun glasses) and them high fiving each other and then slapping each others backsides as they passed.) And John did look very handsome in the outfit. He surprised the pilot (who had been set up by his mother) as he landed in his plane and asked whether he would come to TtN and sing with the cast of Grease. The cast (the T-Birds) had been amusing us before the show by appearing off the bus already dressed in their costumes and just generally wandering back and forth a lot ensuring that they got noticed! Anyway the pilot performed "Grease Lightening" with the cast and he was quite the showman and a nice little mover. That done (needed to be done twice because of a smoke issue) it was time to close out the show. John sang Take That's "Rule the World" accompanied by a local choir.
And with that the recording was over but they showed the VT clips of the sections that had already been recorded and John stayed and watched them with us and really seemed to enjoy the audience reaction to the clips.
John was in high spirits bantering with the crew and the people taking part in the show (he'd clearly been teasing some guy who was part of the "Lean on Me" family and friend's choir who got his own back by patting him on the bottom on stage and then kissing him on the cheek as he left-ha!). Loved him bantering with his family. He introduced various family members to the audience and then asked where one uncle was as he couldn't see him. The answer? "Silverstone". John-"that's him out of the will."
Fun recording with no less than 3 changes of outfit (although his hair stylist could maybe do some with some screen shots for continuity purposes of the pieces that he's filming out of sequence-hair was quite different last week to this week), some very moving pieces and John on top form. Another great recording.