Improving The Voice
Sia’s performance on The Voice left Scott impressed by her singing but distracted by the effort to hide her face. He proposed placing every contestant behind a wall until the final, allowing the programme to remain genuinely about voices.
Professional dancers could perform in front of the wall, or masks and animation could keep the singer concealed. Chris noted that the spinning chairs were already the show’s main gimmick, but Scott believed delaying every reveal would stop attention falling after the auditions.
Raleigh Ritchie brings a shark
Raleigh Ritchie arrived in a T-shirt dominated by the face of a shark. He discussed touring with George Ezra, remembering the cities on his own headline tour and completing filming for the next series of Game of Thrones.
As Jacob Anderson, he played Grey Worm. Arriving on set at about five in the morning could mean encountering somebody in full armour on horseback, an inspiring contrast with an ordinary working day.
The programme warned him about Kristian Nairn’s earlier game. The actor known almost entirely for saying “Hodor” had produced an unexpectedly serious swear when the cold water hit. Raleigh promised to keep better control.
Bingo becomes a water fight
Raleigh admitted watching previous games and understood that the original challenge of holding water had largely disappeared. He and Chris therefore treated it as a direct fight from the beginning.
Clips included a naturalist seeing a British animal for the first time, Michael Mosley describing Roger Bannister’s interval training, a weather presenter’s girth blocking a map and a Chase answer offering “eat your pie” as a Rick Astley lyric.
Raleigh repeatedly returned the spray, leaving Chris on the receiving end more often than usual. Scott praised how quickly he understood the game and confirmed that the video would join the programme’s increasingly wet archive.
Big Weekend tickets disappear
All tickets for Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Norwich were allocated within about 40 minutes. Listeners had set multiple alarms and waited online before the release, but demand far exceeded capacity.
Scott apologised to those who missed out and called successful applicants to hear their reactions. Raleigh was due to play the event, giving his Bingo visit a direct link to the weekend’s growing line-up.
Breakfast on a shovel
Scott showed Chris a full English breakfast served on a small shovel. Chris liked traditional food prepared well but hated tiny portions, slate boards, baskets and any presentation which replaced an ordinary plate.
They called the Isle of Man venue. A staff member explained that it was a fireman’s breakfast linked to steam engines and that a plate sat beneath the shovel. Customers could request the food without it.
Chris still had questions about hygiene, the handle and the possibility of food being catapulted across a table, but the busy employee ended the call. Listeners then supplied mixed grills on spades, gravy in watering cans and chips in unusual containers, proving that plates had become unexpectedly unfashionable.
Real or No Real
Alan Dedicoat joined a game which included the age of fossils, celebrity tours and twerking. Paul McCartney really had said his last twerk was with Katy Perry and that she was rather good at it.
The result was a draw. March ended with Scott and Chris still debating food presentation and imagining an Alan Dedicoat safari.
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