WHAT A LET DOWN!

My lovely husband applied for free BBC tickets for the taping of a new show at the Quays, Media City. The tickets came and we arrived in plenty of time for the show.

We joined the humungous queue, which tripled its length behind us. We waited in line for over an hour and then some assistants came round with a people counter. Click! Click!

When they had reached the, unknown to us, magical number, they asked the people behind us to leave. This must have been over fifty people! We were about four couples in front of the cut off end of the line and we waited another half hour. The line shuffled slowly towards the entrance to the theatre. We could see the entrance about twenty metres away. Hurray, our goal was in sight!

Our long wait, standing in a line for over two hours was at an end when suddenly disappointment and anger reared their ugly heads! We were informed that there was no room left in the theatre and if we chose to, we could watch the taping of the programme on a TV screen in foyer; if we liked!  Needless to say; we didn’t!

Now this tale begs the questions: Why do they issue so may free tickets? Rationally I can understand that the makers of the show need to guarantee that the theatre will be full for the show but to issue so many unnecessary tickets was absurd.

We only live ten minutes away from the venue but after listening to conversations in the line, some had travelled quite a distance. So although I can see this side of the argument, I still feel quite cross about being misled and let down.

I know that nothing I say here will make any difference to the method of ticket allocation and yes I know that there is a disclaimer on the letter that you receive that states quite categorically that admission is not guaranteed but still disappointment does factor in here and maybe people will stop and think before trying for tickets.

I didn’t want to end on a sour note so I’ll finish by saying that my lovely husband and dear daughter mine did manage to get in to see John Bishop record one of his TV programmes and we were delighted with our seats, the show and the fact that he entertained us for over two hours due to a technical hitch. A memorable night out!

​Thought for the day: And sure enough even waiting will end... if you can wait long enough!
 

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