Billy Elliot on BBC1 SAT 30TH JULY

[paul30003]

Scott did magnificently and appeared to be really charming towards the lady he was asked to rehearse and perform with.

Yes! Scott is a very charming young man. I spoke with Scott & his parents at the stage door, he was kind enough to sign a Billy London t-shirt for me (I asked his parents first of course!)

[Billy Whiz]

Here is a YouTube video of Scott's performance on TV last night.

http://youtu.be/q4JCV2BDP30

[ERinVA]

Thanks, Billy Whiz.

Does anyone know who that woman is? Is she a known performer, or just an ordinary person? Not being familiar with the format of the show, I am curious. I thought she was excellent, and I would agree with Scott that she would make a good Mrs. W.

[dancingboy]

Ellen, I did not see the whole show,but from what I heard the woman is a dance teacher and had a 'dream' of dancing on the professional stage.


dancingboy.

[KeefyM]

Hi Ellen,

as a BBC employee and one of the producers of the first series of Tonight's The Night in 2009, and now as the freelance Associate Producer for BBC Entertainment shows like Tonight's The Night I will now bore you and everybody else about the show.


Sally Saunders is just an ordinary member of the public with a family of 3 who is a full time teacher & dance teacher in Wales, but she has loved to dance and sing since she was little and appeared in numerous school plays etc from a very young age and has always had a dream of dancing on the professional stage, and one of her dream roles is Mrs W.
She runs a choir and community dance school in her village in Wales and also does volunteer work with the Children's Special Care Unit, so she is working flat out 7 days a week as well as trying to manage her family. She was nominated by her friend Tina and the headmistress of the school to appear on the show as thank you for all her hard work and all that she has done with the kids as a teacher and for all her volunteer work. Her husband and kids were in the studio (which was recorded at BBC Scotland in Glasgow on Friday 15th July) to watch her performance with Scott.

The basic premise of the show has taken elements from shows like Candid Camera, Surprise, Surprise, Beadles About and Jim'll Fix It and the show is based around making the dreams come true for one night of ordinary members of the public nominated by friends(via the BBC website and adverts in newspapers) who think they have a hidden talent or other special reason i.e. they have done an exceptional amount of work and support in their local community, have gave a lot of their time to helping other people, do a lot of volunteer work, have had a hard time and still suffering through the loss of a close relative or raised a lot of money for charity, amongst other things, and therefore the idea is the friends nominate the people as a thank you and to give something back from the community in return for that persons hard work, charity & volunteer work or to give them a special night after the loss of someone.

The nominees do not know they have been put forward by friends, so they are setup in hidden camera situations (which their friends are in on) where things deliberately go wrong (in the case of Sally it was in a restaurant with her friend with a Waiter who kept getting the order wrong, dropping things, weirdly danced around her table and was told to do stupid things(like the dancing) and say stupid things by John Barrowman) and then they are eventually surprised by John Barrowman or celebrity guests (i.e. also in last night's show a 12 year old girl who has spina bifida and has done an amazing amount of charity work got to meet and sing with Glee star Matthew Morrison and another woman sang with her pop idol Sophie Ellis-Bextor).
When the person is surprised, they are then told why they have been nominated and that they will get the opportunity to make their dreams come true for one night in the Tonight's the Night studio and perform(sing/dance) with their celebrity idols or get the opportunity to perform their dream role.

I also thought Sally was excellent, very confident & I think she would definitely make a good Mrs W.


Cheers
Keith


Thanks Pat and Billy Whiz for the links, much better than having to scroll though iPlayer and also great that everyone who can't access iPlayer can now see the show.

[patc]

Thanks, keefy, for the details and history of this show. Not in the slightest bit boring. I hadn't heard of it before now (not much of a TV fan, anyway, except for sport and "fillums") but I must say I thought it was excellent, well-paced and quite moving. I'm all in favour of people realising their dreams. That's what makes BETM and BYT so special .

Pat

[athadj]

I actually liked the whole show, which is a surprise as I normally hate these types of shows...My favorite part (apart of course from the brilliant Scott Mckenzie and his very smiling face in Born to Boogie) was the amazing 12 year old girl who got to meet Mathew Morrison. The look on her face when she realised what was going on and the tears in her eyes....awhhh priceless. Needless to say I'm crying just thinking about it....
Back to Billy....

[BILLYFAN]

Sorry about the wrong info last Friday, but my informant got it wrong,(I've had a ward with her)
however, Scott was very good and hopefully get a few more people to see the show

[ERinVA]

Thanks for answering my question and telling me how the show works, Keith.