I went to see 'Have I got news for you' being film...

I went to see 'Have I got news for you' being filmed last week.

Queueing starts at 5pm, lasts for about 2 hours or so, before another hour waiting in the studio.

I was given a seat that was behind the set. I'm not joking, I could see one of the panelists, the other three and the host were entirely out of view. I do however know exactly what the back of the HIGNFY set looks like.

This means I was forced to watch it on a TV screen (ironic, as I could have done that the next evening at home) and I struggled to hear everything that was going on as everyone was facing away from me. It was definitely not very funny and the people on the opposite side of the studio in a similar seating position to me looked equally deadpan.

The tickets to these events are free, however I felt my role was that of an extra, to fill a seat so that the audience looked full for the camera. It's glaringly obvious that these seats cannot see what's going on, the producers must know this, but they persist nonetheless, taking advantage of their position of providing a free 'live experience'. These seats do not provide that experience and I would suggest that if they want extras on camera then they pay for them. If they simply want an audience, then make sure everyone in that audience can see and hear the show.

I left halfway through filming because it was so awful.