Chris researches Will in front of him
Will Ferrell arrived during the publicity tour for Anchorman 2, but Chris had not finished his preparation. Instead, he searched for Will online while the actor sat opposite him and read out details including his position on IMDb’s star meter. Will treated the awkwardness as part of the interview, joking that the entire promotional tour had been arranged to move him into the website’s top 500.
Scott and Chris then explained Innuendo Bingo. Will appeared unsure why ordinary broadcast clips were meant to be funny, while Chris was conscious that his Mila Kunis interview had already given him a rather public association with Hollywood encounters. Scott warned that Will was difficult to make laugh; the game demonstrated just how accurate that warning was.
The driest contestant produces a very wet game
The clips covered staff at a bell factory “ringing their own bells”, Joe Biden discussing a president with a big stick, footballer Christopher Samba and a basketball-player comparison, and a lingerie-shop owner talking about working with young boys. Will remained impressively straight-faced. When he finally sprayed Chris, it was less an involuntary laugh than a decision that he had held the water for long enough.
Rick Stein wanted to suck the head of a crayfish, an old book needed a “boner” to flatten it, and a sailor removed a cannon before shooting opponents as he crossed a finish line. A Radio 4 introduction placed James Naughtie in Edinburgh and Evan Davis in London, while Dr Fox supplied one of his familiar noises. Will occasionally acknowledged a clip, but mostly chose his own moment to empty his mouth directly at Chris.
The result was deliberately uncomfortable and extremely funny. Chris became steadily more soaked while apologising for the entire concept, and Scott described the encounter as awkwardly brilliant. Chris even offered Will a spare pair of pants afterwards. During a video link, Chris added one last complication by holding his cue paper so the camera appeared to see a blank page while only Will could read the writing.
The return of “Wrap Myself in Paper”
With Christmas a week away, Scott gave Magnus Carlsson’s “Wrap Myself in Paper” its first play of the year. The song’s opening claim that Christmas was “a week and a day” away was already one day late, but that did not matter to Chris, who regarded the track as a programme tradition.
Some listeners objected to its return and Chris defended it with unusual intensity. Scott’s greater ambition was to hear Bastille perform the song during Fearne Cotton’s Christmas Live Lounge. What had begun as a niche festive favourite was now being treated as material for one of Radio 1’s biggest bands.
Mariah Carey has a difficult Christmas performance
Scott reluctantly played part of Mariah Carey’s performance of “All I Want for Christmas Is You” at the National Christmas Tree ceremony in Washington. He loved Mariah at Christmas, which made the rough, off-key vocal harder to discuss. Afterwards, an off-mic comment suggested that she had not even been at the microphone, followed by a resigned “It is what it is.”
The programme balanced that recording against Mariah’s magnificent seasonal mythology. Scott had heard that she recreated the song’s snowy video each Christmas in Colorado, complete with a sleigh and reindeer. Even a troublesome live appearance was not going to dislodge her from the show’s festive celebrations.
Alan Dedicoat reads Real or No Real
Alan Dedicoat supplied the statements for a round featuring Scott and Charlie Sloth. David Cameron and Michael Owen really had shared a bunk bed on an overnight military flight to Afghanistan, and German pigs in blankets really were known as sausages in dressing gowns.
The claim that Sam Bailey’s winner’s CD had been burned at the last minute and labelled in marker pen was no real. A 1998 Christmas Top of the Pops really had included performances involving Johnny Vaughan, Denise Van Outen and Jane McDonald. Charlie won the round by 30 points to 10.
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