Jonathan Ross, Ricky Gervais and Gordon Ramsay

I saw them. Two rows from the front, from THAT desk, from THAT couch, from the floppy fringe.

I was given 2 tickets to go watch a recording of Friday Night with Jonathan Ross at the BBC studios (on a Thursday). For those of you who don't know what this programme is about (and thus why I am so excited), this is THE talk show host of the moment.

Unless, of course, you're in the US, which means it's probably Jay Leno or someone like that. Who knows.

But here, in London, Jonathan Ross is as awesome as ... shoulder pads were in the 80's. Yes, he is THAT awesome.

You know how purple hair and yellow eyeshadow were so 'it' in the 80's? Yes, Jonathan Ross is as 'it' as that.

The ticket said that they'd start letting the audience in at about 5.45pm. So I got there at 4.30pm, and there were about 90 people in front of me.

All of them were queuing, and it looked quite fun, so I joined in.

Those pesky BBC people spoiled the fun by letting us into the studios at about 5.45pm, but no worries, the fun continued in the cafe where we had more fun queuing up for the cakes and drinks.

Fun stopped for a bit when we found some seats and had the cakes (surprisingly good), and then the loudspeaker called us in to the actual recording studio.

'Will tickets number 1 to 50, please go towards the illuminated sunflowers.'

Cue rushing to the man with the clipboard, waving your tickets in his face.

Looks at ticket, number 90, back to the end of the queue, young lady.

'Will tickets number 50 to 100, please go towards the illuminated sunflowers'.

Cue more rushing to the man with the clipboard, waving tickets, this time saying

'That's us! That's us!'

We baa-ed our way like sheep towards the studio, one long queue of patient, (mostly) excited group of people, all staring intently at anyone going by, in hopes that we'd see some famous people.

Now, let's pause here for a second to define what it is that makes someone LOOK famous. I reckon if you go around town with tousled hair and sunglasses, you might look it.

The lead singer from Razorlight jazzed on by. Who? Indeed. But anyhow, being famous, we all stared. Stared him up the stairs, towards the door, stared him back down the stairs.

The queue were then led towards the seats where we were asked to sit in the second row (now, doesn't the opening sentence make so much more sense?)

It was quite surreal sitting there, looking at that sofa and the table. It looked pretty much like how it looks on telly, but just slightly smaller (our telly is quite big).

Then began the usual telly schmooze. The compere made some jokes, one guy told us when to clap, we all practiced looking pouty whenever the camera came to us, and we just buzzed. Really. It was just so buzzy in there, everyone was excited, and you could feel the buzz in the air. Buzz was everywhere.

I don't quite know how to describe it, but just imagine this. There were about 200 people all sitting in this studio, the layout was very much like that of a small cinema. The seats were the springy kind which would jump back into the upright position when you weren't sitting on it. The lighting was orangey, yellowish and mostly quite low-lit, except for the spot where the stage was. That bit was glowing bright with all the lights shining there. Everyone had huge grins, and all of them were looking straight ahead as though they were back in a classroom with the teacher in front. Some people were making sure their hair were OK, some just fiddling with their shirts, some were tapping their feet in excitement, and everyone was just very very excited and buzzing.

Jonathan Ross kinda glided into the room. Seriously, he had his arms stretched out to both sides, and ran a little and just glided on (you know, like how you're gliding when you pretend you're flying). He did it from the left of the room to the right, disappeared to the back of the stage, and came back and did it again from the right of the room to the left.

Sometimes you look at celebs on telly, and you think, surely they must be quite arrogant and nasty in real life. They're celebs, why should they be nice.

Jonathan Ross though, for the 2 hours that we were there, was as nice as you could ever imagine him to be. He was friendly, chatty and just effortlessly funny. I use that word because some people try to be funny, but just, kinda, can't. He is funny without even trying. Blink. Hahahahahah.
Convinced?

The first guest on was Ricky Gervais. When he walked on stage, that was quite weird.

(to be continued)