louis theroux
i was almost in some louis theroux show in manchester. i was to star as "drunk guy who walked into louis mid speech"
it never aired
fuckers
(The Kaiser, Wed 17 Nov 2004, 0:39, Reply)

My one claim to fame!
I used to work in a financial company in london and the boss used to do live broadcasts on cnn and bloomberg about the latest share prices. He used to make all the ugly old brokers from the trading desk give up their seats to the female admin staff so that it looked like the trading desks behind him were entirely run by 20 year old girls.
Pervy old git
(MyrtleTheTurtle, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 23:54, Reply)

eh
I know this sucks but I'd like to share.
My best friend's dad was an extra in The Exorcist.
I was interviewed by local news when a tornado hit my town, simply because I was innocently walking down the street when their van pulled up. Since my house wasn't actually hit by the tornado they got pissed and ran away.
I was also featured on a local news report as "stupid fat kid who gawks out the window of a passing schoolbus approximately 3 seconds into the broadcast"
and my dad's been on tv all the time, being a news photographer and all, and once he was on national tv during the US Open(golf) in 1999 when it came to my town. It's coming to my town next year too. oh god save my soul.
( trintrin has jam for blood, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 23:30, Reply)

Well, I was standing in the background
waiting for my turn to gang rape this 5 year old. But I was a bit miffed. I dint want sloppy seconds, but ya know, some ya win some ya lose. I hate being third in line, theyve stopped struggling by then.
(lifelikeandposeable, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 22:32, Reply)

can i post something for the next question of the week?
how desperate would you be to go to a sperm/egg bank to make a deposit? me and a mate were having this discussion...seens like easy money to me, you get free porn, and i could fill more than 1 pot *bastards*...
(javier, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 22:17, Reply)

Particularly embarrassing
When I was but a wee girl, I went to a stage school where we put on a play every year. One year the local TV company decided to film us. Luckily I played a very small part (well, actually, I played the violin in the background) but in the finishing sequence we are all on stage singing away. The TV people decided that my face was a good one to zoom in on at that point. I didn't know it was being shown on national TV until years later when somebody came up to me telling me that they'd seen me on telly the day before.
Luckily this was all in Sweden so I can forget all about it. Until this day, that is. Never got a penny for it, either.
( Nile, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 21:44, Reply)

Not quite me...
I used to go to Brunel College, Bristol where certain parts of Casualty used to be filmed. I was doing an evening course there and was one of the last to leave. I was stuck in the car park for 10 minutes with one of the crew silently begging me not to start my motorbike because they were filming just around the corner. Looking back though, I really should have.

The pub in the new series of Teachers is the pub my work lot get pissed in all the time. Never saw them filming though so couldn't ruin any shots. Shame.
(Elvendra, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 21:16, Reply)

When I was a baby...
...I appeared in lots of tv commercials & magazines etc. Then I got old & ugly.
(winestain, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 20:59, Reply)

The Brittas Empire
...anyone remember that!! Chris Barrie as an annoying leisure centre manager & the hilarity that ensued? Well, the leisure centre at which the series was filmed was right next to my school (Whitby New Town is in fact Ringwood in Hampshire). In a few episodes with outside shots of the front of the centre, you can see one of the playground fences...and a lot of little black silhouettes against the fence. I'm in at least one of them, though you'd never be able to tell!

Ah...those were the days...watching Chris Barrie sprint to his trailer, being pursued by one of the world's biggest Red Dwarf fans...!!!

(be nice - this is my first post!)
(Krusty the Klown, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 20:56, Reply)

We (my parents) own a very loud Landrover
and whilst on holiday in Wales, in Menai Bridge, we drove past the set of Rwnd y Rwnd (sp?) several times during the day. At one point we were even overtaken by a car with a cameraman in, presumably filming some in-car sequence. So if anyone who watched that saw a very old, noisey, and beat-up Landrover, that was us.

Yup. Oh, I was at a festival where the BBC were filming (BBC4, I think), and just kept wandering back and forth behind the presenter whilst filming, looking all long-haired and such.

I also shat on Richard's (of Richard and Judy) face on live TV, and he liked it*. Sick bastard**.

*probabaly a lie
**probably true
(Fido Dido, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 20:13, Reply)

five minutes of fame
Since moving to Edmonton (where it's currently a surprisingly warm 5C for this time of year) I've been on the telly once, and the wife has been on at least twice.

We did a casualty simulation at the city airport, lots of people in make-up groaning and acting injured, first aiders pouring in to deal with the situation, paramedics acting as triage. I ended up assisting the removal of a 'pilot' from a 'downed aircraft', slapping him on a trolley, and rolling him around the corner to the triage unit - all on local TV. A real ER moment, only less George Clooney-esque.

The wife has been on the local "Big Breakfast" show with her Japanese drumming group - bit of a wake up call, that one. She's also been on TV during a belly-dancing class but she reckons all you could see was her feet because the guy doing the camera work appeared to have a foot fetish... Odd!
(kiwanotree Meh, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 19:39, Reply)

Cut for space
Downtown in Manhattan there's usually something always getting filmed. I came across this scene with Topher Grace and Dennis Quaid during the summer. They and all the extras were all in heavy winterwear. Which is insane since it must have been at least 85 degrees (around 30 celsius), the humidity is like a Vietnam jungle, and all the rubbish bags out on the streets for collection have this smell of wet dogs and piss. I took a few pictures on my cell phone and was standing around by the crew, hoping like the loser I am they would need me for something. After a few minutes when they were done, I was politely told to clear off.

And of course, if you go downtown enough or on the west side, you're almost guaranteed to find filming of Law and Order. Mum frequently tripped over cables from the lighting when she would leave her old office.
(DeadCats, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 19:33, Reply)

Ghettowood
I am amazed at how many movies have been filmed or had pieces filmed in my city (Yonkers, NY, USA), which is relatively unknown and poor, with our only claim to fames being a huuuuge segregation case that was ended only recently and the birthtown of Mary J. Blige and Steven Tyler.

Such include: 8MM, A Beautiful Mind, Big Daddy, Catch Me If You Can, City by the Sea, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Far from Heaven, Great Expectations (1998), Kate & Leopold, The Manchurian Candidate (2004), Mona Lisa Smile, The Preacher's Wife, Rear Window (also 1998), Riding in Cars with Boys, Rollerball, The Royal Tenenbaums, Sleepers, The Stepford Wives (2004), The Thomas Crown Affair, Unfaithful, Zoolander, and scenes for The Sopranos and Law and Order (they filmed at my neighbor's at the block and the end of the street. They own the whole block and they're this really rich white Muslim family with dogs that kept escpaing from their big ass yard until recently). It's weird as hell watching them since the exterior of the train station at the end of Far From Heaven is ours, but the inside is completely different. There are no trees, the platform is elevated, and the only things on the other side were warehouses and a parking lot. There are now several posh apartments.

I haven't been in any of them, but my parents got invited to mayor's inaugural ball, which was at the new movie studio on the shore line (which shares a space with a prison, a welfare office, and expensive flats). All the men, drunks and lesbians kept oggling at my mum since she was in this pink sequined dress and everyone else was in black or red. She thought it was fantastic and dad hasn't stopped teasing her.

Oh, and I don't know where the money from these films have gone (half of them bombed, which is understandable), since we just went through mass budget cuts in school and most of the city is still primarily ghetto.

Sorry for length, though most was movie title so half-sorry.
(DeadCats, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 19:15, Reply)

Major Ingram's fraudulent WWTBA Millionaire
My ex-girlfriend and I were in the audience of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire when Charles Ingram cheated (we are 2 rows from the top directly to the left hand side of the tunnel from which Tarrant appears). Incidentally, no one in the audience heard any suspicious coughing at all (at least we didn't).

Poor bastard, ITV's documentary made it look like the weakest stunt ever, but it was actually pretty convincing. And thanks to Ingram, I made almost a grand out of the story when I sold it to The Sun! (I know, that makes me a bastard, but I was/am a cash-strapped student)

I was in the audience for Trisha as well once - they drove us up to Norwich to watch it being filmed for free. Being the only young and non-chav audience members, we were asked to loiter in the background and 'be seated' by a helpful assistant in a Trisha T-shirt whilst Trisha herself recorded a taster about what was in store for today's show!
(cap'n gingbeard (yarrr), Tue 16 Nov 2004, 17:56, Reply)

The Big Breakfast
Years and years ago I wrote in to The Big Breakfast and asked to go on the Tuesday Obsessive slot as a Star Trek fanatic; they gave me my own 15 minute slot on a Friday and I got to be in almost all the background shots for the rest of the show. It was great XD
Ahhh Johnny Vaugn and Liza Tarbuck...
( Hohum21, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 17:33, Reply)

ITV's Lawless
Bugger me - here's one from the other day! That crappy ITV drama with Trevor Eve that was on the other night, right at the begining, it's all filmed in Shieldfield in Newcastle, the sarnie shop the 2 coppers go in - i buy brekkie sarnies there, the cut the whole place off in july while they filmed it - and later when he's chasing the 'shooter' (police talk, ok..) he runs past my car, pauses, then heads up some stairs - u cleary see my Laguna parked, magic tree freshener and all!

is that worse? i recorded the program... fuck.


Oh - last one - Promise - My mate is the chap from the Nescafe Ad from a few years back - Chris Eubank picks up a hitchiker and he says "aawwwww you're frank Bruno?" - He was also played 'Mad Dog' in that geordie flick from a few years back 'Purley Belta' he's a fucking legend and smokes like a trooper...
(TheManofScience, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 16:29, Reply)

Emmerdale Farm, just b4 the plane crash!
They used to film Emmerdale Farm just down the woods from where i lived, in Esholt. They also used to film at my school. The twins that used to be on in late 80's/early 90's, a lad and a lass ( 1 died in the plane crash and 1 got pushed off ilkley moor by that nutter) pretended to come out of the art block, me and a mate had our bikes with us and we had to walk slowly behind them while they filmed a sequence like it was after school. while i pushed my bike and was holding the grip with just 2 fingers in a 'V'.. hehehe... what a rebel! Mi Nan was over the moon when she saw it but pointed out "you should have brushed your hair". They also sent out loads of flyer the weekend they filmed the plane crash, to warn us of "large pyrtechnics' that were going off in the valley. it were great, lad.

crap story.

Oh, i was also at Yorkshire T.V. once for the old 'Telethon', their cheap version of Comic Relief and i was in the background while Rusty Lee was giving a piece to camera - she's great, she is... we need more of her on telly.
(TheManofScience, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 16:11, Reply)

Get Fresh
That shitty programme Get Fresh once made an appearance at Aberdeen beach and I went down cos the Jesus and Mary Chain were meant to be playing. Not only was it not a real fucking spaceship but a lorry with shit stuck on the sides but they only played the JAMC video. They did film a few of my friends in a piece on punk rock hairstyles where as I spent most of the time wandering about pissed in camera shot trying to find that rubber bastard Gilbert.
(garrison, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 15:59, Reply)

Play school
I once got caught wanking in the arched window. I tell can you little ted was not pleased. We still have it on tape.
(dukefukem, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 15:53, Reply)

From one extreme...
I'm in the credits to the Mortal Kombat 3 arcade game - second from last actually.

I've also appeared in the audience to the Pepsi chart show many times as once you get tickets they never stop giving them to you. Highlights included Shirley Manson (Garbage) wearing no knickers on a 2 foot sound stage (talk about an eyeful!), Apollo Four Fourty playing the "Lost in Space" theme live (they fuckin' rocked, dude!) and not knowing who any of the bands/singers were as I was well past the age of 14.
(antonye, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 15:50, Reply)

cheggers plays cock
My auntie was once one of the inflatable obstacles on cheggers plays pop, she reckons hes a right cunt. We still have the tape.
(dukefukem, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 15:44, Reply)

last of the summer wine
My uncle was once still in the bath used in one of the famous 'bath go-cart' scenes. You cannot hear him but you can see him clearly in between compo's legs. We still have the tape.
(dukefukem, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 15:42, Reply)

strike it lucky
My grandad was once on 'strike it lucky' and during the commercial break Michael Barrymore accidentally drowned him in a pool. He sustained many sexual injuries. You couldn't hear it but you can see it very clearly. We still have the tape. Weird.
(dukefukem, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 15:38, Reply)

bullseye!
My nan was on bullseye once (in the audience) and during the round where you can win a selection of lovely prizes such as...
in 1 - a carriage clock
she sneezed her false teeth 2 rows forward. You cannot hear her doing it but you can see it clearly as we still have it on tape.
(dukefukem, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 15:36, Reply)

I was in Blur's Country House video...
Yes indeedy, if you slow it right down and zoom in on the house you can even see my pale wee face in the window. I clearly wasn't listening when everyone told me to stay out of the front rooms of the house that day....
(Thursday Next, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 15:34, Reply)

i was in the audience
of university challenge, me. several times, in fact. this last series had audience reaction shots put in, i was there to watch my ex-girlfriend be much smarter than i am (and almost win the final, too) so i got my mug shown for what seemed like a ridiculously long time. also, they film 2 or 3 at a time, so my happy, smiling face (just wavering on the edge of frozen no-emotionness) is there for all to see.

my grandma taped it.
(wetflame, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 15:09, Reply)

I just spent a weekend being a Dalek...
...at a Doctor Who convention in Stockton-on-Tees. The BBC were there filming a documentary strand which is going to go out on BBC Three every Saturday night during the first run of the new series. Two of us got bored of entertaining the fans, and decided to take a couple of spins round the local indoor shopping centre instead. We got absolutely mobbed! The 2nd visit was caught on camera by the Beeb so with any luck they'll use the footage. Woo!
( drdavej, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 14:28, Reply)

How I ruined 'Through The Keyhole'
A good few years back I was invited by a friend to join the audience of 'Through The Keyhole'. Apart from us five students the rest of the audience was comprised of old ladies who had nothing better to do.
We watched the first film, featuring the house of some posho explorer kid called Bear Something, who nobody had heard of. But he was definately a man. The panel included Jilly Goulden (spelling?), and her first guess was 'Is it a woman...?' I decided to clap, once, as lously as possible. Not sure why, but it seemd funny, and the audience all laughed at the joke. From then on every wrong answer was clapped by first my friends, then giggling old ladies, pretty much spoiling the whole show.
( Zuowan, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 14:20, Reply)

I'm on the Googlewhack Adventure DVD
I'm the bearded lad in the audience group it cuts to when Dave's talking about a graph.

I know it's not terribly big or clever, being in the audience of a live show, but I'm hoping that this makes me one of the most recent Background Stars, seeing as the DVD was only released last week.
(Iceduck, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 14:19, Reply)

Hollyoaks
Whilst training at a record studio in Liverpool, the Hollyoaks crew turn up - they're doing a shoot for some stupid band in the series. So there I am with my long hair and skanky roll-up - "you look like a sound engineer, wanna be in the show...?" says one of the producers.

Cue hours of monotony in a tiny, hot studio with a director who sounded like Loyd Grossman - I did 4 takes, 3 of which I fucked up royally by looking directly into the camera. Professional, huh?

Whilst all this was going on, the rest of the "actors" who were not on camera, did their best to put everyone else off by writing 'bum', 'arse', 'guff' and other hilarious words on notepads, and holding them up behind the camera.

Got paid (eventually) £60 - which worked out at £20 per second I was on screen. Nice work if you can get it.
(apple pie - eat me with ice cream, Tue 16 Nov 2004, 14:16, Reply)