The final countdown
We're just a few days away now from launching (Monday, 91Èȱ¬ ONE, 2305 BST) and yesterday we had our first and only pilot day.
It was the first opportunity to get a proper idea of what the programme might actually look like and for us to decide lots of things about how we shoot the show; with which cameras; how long we allow our panel to chat for; where our presenter stands in the studio - everything really.
And as always, lots of things aren't quite what you expected.
Gabby seemed to often be behind a much lighter background than our guests and somehow that didn't look right. Some of our panel chats were too short, some too long. I was in the gallery with our director Richard, in front of a huge bank of TV monitors that showed us what each camera in the studio was shooting, and all the different graphics sources showing the titles and images to put in our studio screens.
We did three run throughs of the show and Richard was like a whirling dervish, asking the camera operators to change shots, move round, get out of shot, take a few risks - it was an impressive sight. And if you would like a look behind the scenes of the show you can .
Afterwards we all emerged from the twighlight world that we'd inhabited all day (television galleries are always somewhat nocturnal places as you need to be able to see all the screens clearly), and we were basically pleased with what we'd achieved.
I must caution you all though, it's a work in progress, and not just in the look of the show but probably in the content. We will need to learn lessons and develop the programme as we go along. It's exciting though and I hope you all like it.
