Tonights the Night - Show 5

[fairyd123]

Another short and sweet recording this time around with lots of JB singing, the re-appearance of two people from the Pilot episode that they filmed and again sadly no Stage Fright section. I think we're only going to get 3 Stage Fright's - the fire twirling (against Gethin Jones), karate (against Denise Lewis) and the footie in the first episode aired.

And of course JB won each challenge!

The Stage Fright sections seem to have been taken up by VT of the Doctor Who monster costumes for the competition they're running, none of which we got to see. It feels odd that I know the name of the monster that won (think a guy who created one of the monsters (Dvorak?) was sitting behind us) but haven't actually seen any of the video clips yet! I suspect this will make the whole thing look incredibly anti-climatic on screen unless they slot in some of the generic audience reaction shots which they film at the beginning of each taping as the audience hasn't seen any of the costumes so can't react to anything.

The first performer this week was a young 19 year old Irish girl who was in remission from cancer. She loved her Irish Dancing and it gave her something to aim for when she was sick - she wanted to get better so she could dance again. John surprised her in a shopping centre by calling her name over the tannoy and having a group of Irish dancers appear out of nowhere. He then invited her to come on the show and perform with the cast of Lord of the Dance.

Which she did and its a testament to her that it took me most of the song to work out which one she was (she was in green, everyone else was in red -I'm really not too bright sometimes!). She was great and as I love Irish Dancing (my granny was a champion Irish Dancer in her day) it was very enjoyable to watch. They also played her a video message from Michael Flateley who was very sweet and basically suggested that she come and audition for one of his shows. Very nice start to the show.

kingbantam and I had great seats - right at the front of the block we were on which meant that John spent a lot of time about 2 inches away from us in between takes. He was wearing his very shiny silver suit (which has black sparkly buttons on the jacket), pink cufflinks, pink belt that he wore at the Priscilla premiere (possibly made by Julia something that I didn't catch who was in the audience and who John gave a shout out to and Stuart the warm up guy tried to blag belts from her at "mates rates") and a black shirt. Up close the amount of make up is very disconcerting but he is a handsome devil and the bling is very pretty. Even more disconcerting was when he was facing away from us and decided to hitch his trousers up and stick out his backside which did rather naturally catch the eye of kingbantam and I! We had a chat in between takes and got berated for not recognising his shirt from the concert tour (I wore it on the tour... you've forgotten already!) - honey a black shirt is a black shirt! Later when his mike wire started trailing down he had to readjust and we found out that his shirt has a small pocket sewn into the back to house his radio mike. Very nifty! Also he apparently has 19 of those shirts. 19!

There was a hell of a big queue today though to get in - I wouldn't be surprised if not everyone did - there were a lot of people on standby tickets.

Main performance of the night was a young 17 year old lad called Lewis who sang with Russel Watson. Lewis' best friend Kyle had died at the age of 15 from a brain haemmorhage and Lewis had sang at his funeral and been a pillar of strength for Kyle's parents visiting them everyday and making sure that they were OK which they just thought was extraordinary that a 15 year old would take the time to do that. Kyles parents set up a charity doing something similar to Tonight's the Night - giving youngsters access to resources so they can follow their performance arts dreams and Lewis was heavily involved with that. John surprised him by phoning him and asking him to come and sing at the studio with Russell, who of course suffered with a brain tumour himself.

I will admit that I did tear up during the VT - it was very emotional.

Lewis and Russell then sang You Raise Me Up and the poor boy was so nervous he was shaking like an absolute leaf on stage - you could see the hand he was holding the mike in shaking like crazy. I will be honest I have never especially rated Russel Watson as a singer, I just don't get the love - he's bland and power wise not as impressive as John but he came across as a genuine guy. The kid Lewis also had a really great voice.

You know you've been to too many tapings when you can instantly tell whether something needs to be re-done and it did but it was a very nice duet.

This week we also got all 4 of the "workplace wonders" performing in the semi-final - the paramedics (who performed Valerie), Firefighters (who sang That's Life while John barely restrained himself from joining in - he was even doing all his moves (he ended his concert tour last year with this song)along with it, the plumbers (who sang Burning Love) and the Waitresses (who looked gorgeous in torquoise sequinned dresses and sang Promise). I thought that it would be firefighters v paramedics and waitresses v plumbers with the 2 winners going into the final. And if that had been the case I would have voted for the firemen and the waitresses. But you could only pick one winner and the audience picked the waitresses (who are very very good) and the plumbers (who really really aren't and were objectively the worst group up there) to go through to the final.

Drummer from the plumbers has 2 cute little kids who were drumming up support for them so I suspect they'll win but they don't deserve too. Next week I'll be Go Team Waitresses all the way. I mean voting off two bands who work in the emergency services!

For shame audience, for shame.

This show also saw the return of two people who were in the Pilot episode which was filmed but won't be transmitted.

I was really delighted to see that they decided to bring back Bradley the copper from the Pilot because he was so brilliant, had a great story (seriously to decide to run a Community Idol contest and get sponsorship for it, do all the advertising, never mind getting young kids in the community who wouldn't ordinarily be interested in anything to do with the police to actually take part and to do all this while his dad was dying was amazing) and he had fantastic stage presence and a brilliant voice. He sang Sway and was completely amazing - I'm thrilled he gets his chance to be on tv.

They also bought back Dominga who cropped up in the naff game that they run in the Pilot. Dominga is a super bubbly Durecell bunny of a woman who was surprised by John in the audience and got to do a cowboy routine (she loves country and western and to line dance apparently!). As "surprises" go? Well she was in the pilot so I guess they just contrived a way for her to come back because they knew she'd be brilliant (and she was - she reduced John to hysterics although I think by the end he was rather glad to get her off stage!) She didn't even remotely manage to do any of the cowboy moves she needed to win the prizes (although they gave them to her anyway) but her real prize was that they'd flown her sister over from Oklahoma to be with her (there was a funny bit when they pretended that she was talking to Dominga on a satellite link up).

And we got lots and lots of singing from John this week. He started the show with Rhythm of the Night which was done in a Bollywood style fashion with 16 dancers behind him - the J8's (or J7's now as one of the dancers Layla was leaving for another job) and 8 others. It was a great song - loved the interpretation although the pastel yellows worn by the dancers offended my fashion sensibilities!

In between takes he sang bits of songs with members of the audience (Sun and Moon from Miss Saigon and Anything Goes - bet that's the very last time he agrees to do that or he'll have everyone asking him all the time!) and sang the whole of All I Ask of You with Claire Moore who is amazing and the vocal coach for the show. I never thought I'd get to hear him sing anything from Phantom live and would gladly have paid to hear him sing with Claire Moore so I was completely and totally delighted to hear him sing All I Ask of You. It really really made my night. He's promised he'll duet with the warm up guy next week!!

Because the show was so swift John didn't embarrass any family members or friends this week (Scott was there yawning away in between takes! Hee!) by getting them to sing and despite Stuart having an autographed cue card to give away I don't think it went to anyone.

John ended by singing Sir Duke by Stevie Wonder complete with some very very fancy choreography while the audience got drowned in a ridiculous amount of multi coloured confetti!

Rather sad that next week is the last week! It's been such an amazing show to watch being recorded. I know that from what I've been reading on JB's forums that an awful lot of people weren't very keen on the aired show (I've seen it called cheesy, schmaltzy and embarrassing with people particularly seeming to dislike the Stage Fright section). And yes it is cheesy and cheerfully old fashioned in a cosy early Saturday evening family viewing way. It is sort of a throw back to the sort of variety shows you used to see in the 70's and 80's but there is nothing wrong with that. And John is so so passionate about the show. It's his show, his baby and very much him through and through. So whilst I have no doubt that the press will slaughter it (The Mirror have apparently already dismissed it as pathetic) I do hope that ratings wise it does well for him and that people give it another chance because I really want it to do well simply because he loves it so much and he's put so much of his heart and soul into it.

Comments

[academia4me.livejournal.com]

Great review, as usual - I just caught it before bed.

I've only seen a very small number of people on John's yahoo group being negative (3 maybe? As opposed to ~50 positive comments). The kinds of comments they made led me to suspect they were Captain Jack fans not JB fans, and thus were confronted with a side of John they were not used to!

And, yes, I'm sure it will be slagged off in the press (something John and the BBC are probably expecting, as it's the kind of show that will be reviewed). I've stopped reading tv critics, because they always seem to be watching different shows to me. As long as the ratings are good I'm sure the BBC will be happy - I don't know if you've seen any ratings info today, but TTN won it's slot and was the 4th most watched show that night (after BGT, Hells Kitchen and Casualty).

And hee! at Scott yawning! I guess it's like being married to an accountant and watching them do the paperwork :D

[loreley-se.livejournal.com]

I'm not a "Captain Jack fan" but I still don't like the show. Not because it is badly done or anything but just because it is not the kind of thing I enjoy, John or no John. Just because I like the man doesn't mean I have to love everything he does.

[academia4me.livejournal.com]

Fair enough, but it was their specific posts and what they said in them that made me think that.

[stlscape.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much for sharing your reports of the tapings with us. I won't be able to watch the show until tomorrow after work, but am looking forward to seeing it with your comments in mind.

[fairyd123.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you like the reports. Comparing the aired version with the version I saw being filmed is strange - some truly dire camera angles (lots of sweeping shots of heads in the crowd) and a lot of the atmosphere is completely lost.

[stlscape.livejournal.com]

I finally got to watch the show from a very small, very poor quality copy. I found it a bit meh, overall. I know the quality had a lot to do with that, but got a bit turned off by all the swooshy shots and flashy lights and half of the "dream come true" bits. I did enjoy the bits with John, and can't wait to see him perform live in May (Glasgow & Birmingham). He definitely seemed to be having a wonderful time with his show and a live audience, so hooray for him. For his sake, I hope the ratings are good - the show's certainly as good as half of what's on TV here in the US. I've got a line on a better quality copy, so I may watch that one and see if it makes a difference in my opinion.

Thanks again for your taping reports. They made the show a lot easier to decipher as I was watching it on about a 3 inch by 3 inch screen. Maybe more of the atmosphere will come across with a larger view screen.

ETA: Apologies for the delete-I accidentally double-posted.

[bakaknight.livejournal.com]

Golly, it sounds so brilliant.

[fairyd123.livejournal.com]

Its enormous fun live - especially the singing in between.

[nuttalla.livejournal.com]

Great report. I had totally forgotten what he sang as the opening and closing numbers.

Yes, it may be the last time he agrees to sing with the audience, but he did offer and it was only fair he sang with everyone. (Even if the performances were not as good as one of the participants would have hoped!):)

[chandlershaw.livejournal.com]

Well he was co-erced by the first girl really, but I guess once he allows himself to be dragged in by one he can't complain when others want the same.

I suspect he will learn one day.

[fairyd123.livejournal.com]

The opening and closing numbers were a tad unmemorable this week I must say - really great dance routines but that's about it.

Oh I doubt he'll do the audience bit again but at least you got your moment.

[nuttalla.livejournal.com]

The last dance routine was stunning!

Yes I got my moment, but I went there yesterday with the intention of singing on my own, to sing with John was a major bonus. It however doesn't go down in history as my best vocal performance - I was very dissapointed in myself!

[jhava.livejournal.com]

It really is a shame that the aired version isn't coming across as well as the ambiance at the recordings you've described. I think the Guardian review nailed it spot on when it said TTN is just trying to do too much.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the ratings over the balance of the run.

[fairyd123.livejournal.com]

The aired show is very disjointed. Some very very strange camera angles. I think part of the problem is that they've actually edited it to the point where all the emotion doesn't come across that well - sometimes its best to leave things looking slightly ropey but real - it's more endearing that way.

You see in the studio it never feels like there is too much going on - quite the opposite in fact. Apparently it quite comfortably beat Primeval so as long as it remains in that time slot and doesn't clash with Britain's Got Talent it should be fine -although inevitably there will be a degree of drop off. Biggest problem is there is no "hook" to get you to tune in next week and I don't think the Doctor Who competition is going to provide that.

[chandlershaw.livejournal.com]

Yep. Nice glitzy show but far to bitty and you are right about it being devoid of all the emotion you get live - it is over-edited. Still I'm glad it did well cos it is enjoyable nonetheless and the enthusiasm he has for it means he deserves to have it do well. Problem might be people watched it this week cos it was new, the question is I guess will they come back next week. Hope so.

[fairyd123.livejournal.com]

Its edited to within an inch of its life - like yesterday with the Russell Watson duet- the original reaction before they re-did it was more emotional. By the time they'd done the second take the moment has rather passed. On the aired show the Cossack dancing dad was also a good deal funnier in the studio than he appeared on screen. I do wonder that if they simplified the staging massively (no work place wonders) whether it might be better broadcast live. Granted it would put a huge amount of pressure on him and the already nervous performers but it would be a much much better show for it.

Not entirely convinced that people will tune in 6 weeks in a row - as it will all start to blur into one after week 3 I imagine.

[chandlershaw.livejournal.com]

Actually doing it as a live show might be the way to go. Could be fabulous.

[dcsunset44.livejournal.com]

Totally OT, But....

On the subject of FABULOUS, I LOVED your shoes!

I was going to mention them on sunday, but the audience crew guy sent us off to the other stairs before I got around to it.

And I finally got around to friending you again, I really must try to keep up with online stuff, I seem to be neglecting LJ in favour of queuing recently :D

[chandlershaw.livejournal.com]

Thanks re shoes. I must admit I love them too (a lot of people seem to quite like them :)

..lots of queuing and lots of real life..always gets in the way!

[aresnz.livejournal.com]

First of all, I truly appreicate your reports from all the tapings. John puts his heart and soul into anything he does and this being his baby, he's also given more than 110%. Now, to be honest, this usually isn't my kind of show, but I would tune in only because of John Barrowman..the entertainer. I've not had a chance to watch the download yet, but I'll say this, John is an all around entertainer and has the perfect personality for this type of show. He and he alone would make me come back to watch each week.

The ratings for this first show were good, but the real test will be from the second show on. Usually people tune in out of curiosity and such.


Lori

[fairyd123.livejournal.com]

Glad you like the reports. The ratings for the first show were OK - it won its time slot - but only by a very narrow margin so it will be interesting to see how the ratings do over the next couple of weeks.

[goddessmaat.livejournal.com]

Nice re-cap. Lewis was amazing, I've never been a Russell Watson fan but he was really great witht he young man. I was glad the Waitresses got through, it was going to be either them or the Firemen that I voted for lol.

[fairyd123.livejournal.com]

Lewis was really very impressive. I don't get the Russell Watson love at all - he's a decent singer but by no means a great singer. I think if Lewis hadn't been so incredibly nervous he would probably have outsung him!

I wasn't impressed at all with the Plumbers going through but thought the Waitresses were great - great voices - fab dresses.

[kampffenhoff.livejournal.com]

I am pleased to read your reports of the shows. I enjoyed the first show, but as usual with this type of show on TV I had some trouble understanding what some of the people said and sang.

Whereas my English spoken is very good and my writing too I have difficulty with the way some people speak and sing on TV. I didn't understand anything McFly or the boys sang or Katherine Jenkins either, which made these sections a bit boring for me.

I thought some of the camera angles were a bit odd too.

That said, the whole family aged 15 months to 41 enjoyed the show and it is good to read your articles. Thanks.

[fairyd123.livejournal.com]

Glad you like the reports - the camera angles were indeed incredibly strange!

[toottims.livejournal.com]

Thanks for another fantastic report.
I really enjoyed the show on Saturday night, it was, pure and simply, Entertainment with a capital E.
Doesn't matter that some people think it's old fashioned, or too much John or whatever their reason for not liking the programme.
It was just a fun show, not there to belittle people or make fools of them.
Enjoy your last recording next weekend.

[fairyd123.livejournal.com]

Thanks- glad you liked the report. It's a fun entertaining show and I hope it continues to do decently in the ratings.

[nikkonekko.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing your experience. As a child of the 60's and having grown up with the snarky humor of George Carlin and now being a fan of Jon Stewart, I thought I'd be turned off by the cheese and manipulative sob stories. But I am delighted by show. Its just the right balance of human interest, humor and John. I wish him every success in this project and hope it gets renewed for another run.

[fairyd123.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your kind words. I tend to the cynical as well and I don't find it all that cheesy - certainly not live any way. I think it's a very nice, inoffensive, family show.

In terms of success sadly it only very narrowly beat Primeval in the ratings - not quite the run away success we might have hoped for but on the other hand I imagine it's a pretty cheap show to do (I doubt they pay the West End casts as they're a mini ad for the show) so here's hoping it does get renewed.

[anjelmati.livejournal.com]

On Radio 5 today,Simon Mayo 1pm-4pm,they were reviewing television,and TTN was rubbished by the 2 journalists.The third opinion came from actress Montserrat Lombard (Ashes To Ashes) who said that normally she would not watch such a show,but had tried it and liked it very much.Mayo defended the show,and did say that John Barrowman would be on Friday's show.It will be the ordinary viewer that will like it,since they're the target audience.I enjoyed it,but maybe 45 minutes w/be better?

[fairyd123.livejournal.com]

It's not the sort of show that journalists are going to like - they're cynical old souls and it's a cheery, cheesy 70's throwback. I didn't expect the reviews to be kind.

I think dropping 15 minutes from the show would constrain the format too much. I think they just need to consider simplifying things, make it look less disjointed and I really think it needs to be live - the atmosphere in the studio is amazing!

[mudgeone.livejournal.com]

Its strange that the Stage Fright item seems to have disappeared. John did mention in a very recent interview in The Herald that he had been practicing sword fighting for the challenge. However he did mention that his elbow was really hurting him. He had to have a cortisone injecton over Christmas due to the pain caused by sword fighting in the Panto and the training for the challenge had caused the problem to flair up again.
Maybe they decided to drop the challenge due to this. Or perhaps it was because John kept winning every audience vote.

Thanks for the report on the latest show.

[fairyd123.livejournal.com]

I don't think that Stage Fright has been dropped as such - just had to make way for the Doctor Who monster competition - which I can't comment on as we haven't seen any of the VT clips yet. They certainly wouldn't drop it simply because JB was winning - after all he loves that!

I think the Herald interview just mentioned the sword fighting that he did in Robin Hood and the fact that he'd injured himself doing the Stage Fright sections - in the Pilot they showed VT of him completely throwing his back out doing the fire twirling training.

[(Anonymous)]

I was lucky enough to be there - I absolutely love John Barrowman - he's amazing. Have to say - totally loved the plumbers - very sexy lead singer and drummer - and they were the ONLY ones to get a standing ovation on the night - I really think they'll win. I liked them cos they had real talent and could both play their own instruments and sing - the waitresses only pouted and sang a song that had the whole house band behind them - no talent!
Agree with the rest x

[fairyd123.livejournal.com]

Well beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder - the plumbers weren't at all sexy in my eyes. The plumbers will win as the drummer has 2 cute kids who were shamelessly pimped out for votes on the night as indeed they will be next week.

The paramedics were OK, the firemen gave a brilliant performance and objectively for me anyway the waitresses are the best because they can actually sing. I thought the plumbers were pretty dire - I mean it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things but it just seemed a shame that such a weak act got through.

[billyk39.livejournal.com]

hi fairyd123
i am actually the drummer of the plumbers band and i respect your opinion of our performance but i am actually quite hurt over the comments of me supposidly pimpimg my children.
i have two lovely kids who are very excited and very proud of their dad being on tv and at the end of the day i am not a profeesional musician i am only a plumber who is just having some fun and enjoying hiself .
so in future the comments you choose to leave about a performance is up to you as you have the right to your opinion but be carefull what you say about someone personally and especially their children as you have got it wrong
goodluck and godbless you
billy

[(Anonymous)]

yes i agree with the point that the plumbers have real talent and the other acts just use the big band behind them
and i also thought the drummer was sexy and the lead singer too also john is a great host full of energy

[fairyd123.livejournal.com]

So are you the same anon commenter as before or have all the plumbers mates decided to come and play? Aww that's sweet!

Well life would be very dull if we all liked the same things - lookswise the plumbers didn't do anything for me at all (wrong generation) and I thought they were fairly weak vocally.

[chunkypaul.livejournal.com]

hi...i,m the guitarist from the paramedics..agree with most comments on here but would like to clear up the post about us other acts just using the house band?..we played all our own music apart from the added bits from the horn section.we ALL had a bit of help from the band!
that said i,m really made up for the plumbers as they were real genuine nice lads who were, like us, just there for the ride and to have some fun!
just wanna thank all involved for giving us 2 wonderful weekends,the memories of which will last a lifetime.
take care all
paul x

[(Anonymous)]

obviously fairyd123 you must work on the show or have something to do with it as you know too much about everything

[fairyd123.livejournal.com]

I have no patience for anon comments but no strange little mousey I was just at the studio along with about 300 others and have a good memory.

[(Anonymous)]

wow - again I disagree - I thought the singer from the paramedics was a very strong singer. Having chatted to other guys outside there seemed to be a general consensus that it should have been the paras v the plumbers in the final. To be fair I really don't think "2 cute kids" were responsible for the plumbers standing ovation - it was a great performance and very popular with the crowd.
Have to say, totally loved the waitresses dresses - they looked stunning!

[fairyd123.livejournal.com]

Well I didn't give the plumbers a standing ovation. But we all like different things - personally they did nothing for me. I would have liked the firefighters and the waitresses in the final but c'est la vie.

And yes the waitresses dresses were amazing.

[dcsunset44.livejournal.com]

Another great review, and my terrible memory thanks you again for the reminders of what actually happened (my short term memory is almost non-existent, I'm just starting to remember things that happened the previous week :S)

I agree it should have been the firefighters (who I voted for) and the waitresses in the final, but at least the plumbers managed to start singing at the right time this week, thats an improvement on the first time. :D

[dragynville.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your write-ups, I'm really enjoying reading them. :D I enjoyed the first ep, as both a JB fan and someone who grew up on variety shows, and my family did as well.

Do you know how many eps are supposed to air, at least initially? I haven't been able to find that info anywhere.