The Now Show, 9 April 2009

For various reasons, including being unlucky in the ballot for tickets, I had not been to see a recording of The Now Show since last July so it was a welcome return this week.

The routine was largely unaltered from the previous visits and the evening started with a pizza at the nearby Pizza Express. The only minor change here is that they have stopped doing the half bottle of Pinot Grigio so I had to have a large glass instead.

The combination of a slightly later start to the recording (it moved to 6:45 from 6:15) and being able to get away early due to the school holidays combined nicely to promote us from our usual 50th in the queue outside Broadcasting House to the very front!

There were slight panics when one of us lost their ticket and I realized that I had brought my penknife with me but a security guard found the ticket and his colleagues failed to find the knife hidden amongst my keys (this works with most airlines too!) so it all worked out fine.

Things were even better when we went to the usual holding room as there were more seats than before and we were able to get four right next to the exit. However, the temporary bar there still charges £3.20 for a 33cl plastic bottle of Grolsch.

The evening dipped when, just before we went into the theatre, we were informed that the first four rows had been reserved for production guests so despite being in the front of the queue outside we found ourselves in the 5th row. This was disappointing (I have already written to the BBC about this) but the upside was that it did allow me to take more photos than usual during the recording.

But the whole point of the evening was the show itself and that did not disappoint at all. After playing (good) reserves for the last few weeks The Now Show team was back to full strength with the return of Hugh Dennis and Marcus Brigstocke to play alongside the other regulars, Steve Punt, Jon Holmes, Mitch Benn and Laura Shavin, and all were on top form to provide over an hour of top entertainment. Listeners to the programme and the podcast will have to settle for the 29 minute edited version.

The proof of a good show is whether you would go and see it again and despite having seen The Now Show several times in the last few years I am already looking forward to going again in a couple of weeks.