That time I turned up on Top Gear...
Just going back through my photo library and came across this screenshot I took of myself in the audience of Top Gear back in 2019.
A couple of things you need to know:
1) I don't drive. I can't drive. I'm forbidden from even learning to drive because of sleep apnoea (currently being treated via a CPAP machine).
2) As I can't drive, arriving at the Top Gear studio by taxi turned out to be.. awkward. Not because the route is difficult, nor for the lack of taxis, but without a car, you'll be standing around to get into the studio. There's nowhere at all to sit at the main drop-off point until several buses come to collect you and take you to the other side of Dunsfold Park aerodrome. I think I ended up waiting 30-45 minutes.
3) I used to work at Dunsfold Park aerodrome after Memset moved there from Guildford's Surrey Research Park. We took the building directly next door to Top Gear's hangar/studio and facilities. Top Gear were our neighbours. We moved in towards the end of the Jeremy Clarkson era and still got to watch a lot of crazy stuff happen when they were switching presenters - twice. Not only that, but was witness to the filming of several things: a reverse car stunt chase from Matthew Vaughn's The Kingsmen. The Paris plane sequence from A Theory of Everything. London Has Fallen (which was pretty interesting), but the big one was watching an entire film unit practice stunts for Star Wars: A Solo Story on trucks that drove up and down the main runway with a camera crew filming everything. It was probably the train heist that appears in the the final film. We even saw a Wookie (Chewie) on the back of truck trundle down the runway which was probably the most surreal experience of my life. I wasn't even in the film industry at this point. It seems to follow me as much as I follow it. But for those that were thinking, "How did Martyn get to Dunsfold Park each day?" - well, the answer was the company provided a minibus service from Guildford station twice a day.
4) So now I'm in the Top Gear studio - my former neighbours (at this point I'd left Memset to go work for an e-commerce agency in Wimbledon) - and it really is an impressive studio space. They were filming two episodes when I was there (judging by the notes left on one the cameras I managed to get a look at) but stayed for only one because after several hours standing up, my feet were understandably killing me. I was practically doing silly walks right at the back of the main audience at one point. Thankfully they were filming something else at the back of the studio at the time. I left after they shot the first few parts of the episode. I had seen enough.
(Side note: Before my sleep apnoea diagnosis, I was learning to drive during my time at Memset - being picked up at the office at Dunsfold Park and either returning to it, or driving myself home. When I was driving myself back to the office one day, I spotted The Stig driving a Bentley on his way out of the aerodrome. He, honestly(!), was still wearing the costume and helmet - and no, we never saw him out of it during all the time were were there. They kept the mystery going even when the cameras weren't rolling.)
