Getting Loose: A day on the set of Loose Women
Loose Women is one of the country's most well-known daytime TV programmes. Unlike other programmes such as This Morning or Lorraine, Loose Women has a live audience for every episode. Which begs the question, what is it like to be in the audience for a live show?
It is important to ensure you arrive early enough to guarantee your space In the show. The show over allocates tickets by a percentage to account for no-shows so that you could be turned away. Since we arrived at 10:30, there was no issue with us being allowed entry.
From this point, it was about an hour to wait until the security checks began at the entrance to the studios. This consisted of a bag search and a body scan using a metal detector. It is then a case of waiting in line again until the time comes to be invited into the studio. Once inside, the main thing that many of the audience seemed to agree on was how much smaller the set looked in real life. Perhaps this relates to what is phrased as the "magic of the tv".
The panel for the show on this particular day consisted of Kaye Adams, Frankie Bridge, Sunetra Sarker and Judi Love.
Source: Matthew Davidson, The Television studio building
Marion Kemp, an audience member from Tilbury, said: "I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the Loose Women studio. We had to queue but time went quickly.
"It's interesting to see how different it is live from how it is watching in your own home and how small the studio is.
"The warm-up artist Lee Peart was brilliant and got everyone into a fun mood, and some audience participation took place with some sitting on the famous panel!
"The Presenters were good, but I would say Kaye Adams topped it. There were some light-hearted chat and make-up touch-ups when the breaks went on.
"Everything was organised well. The cherry on the cake was bumping into Dermott O'Leary as he left 'This Morning'"
During the advert breaks and the light-hearted conversation, there was dancing with the audience and the panel getting involved. It was a fun atmosphere to be part of. Kaye also wanted to teach people "Prancercise", which, as she put it "was jogging for people of a certain age" however, unlike the dancing, this did not get the same response from audience participation.
A few times, Kaye got caught out while speaking to the audience, with her being told they were about to go live. This then led to Kaye rushing back to her place on the panel. This only added to the laughs the audience had throughout the show.
Overall, it was an amazing day. Being in the audience not only allows fans of the show to engage with the panel and feel like they are contributing by reacting to what is being said, but it also shows how much goes on in the background that the everyday viewer does not see.