14 January 2016: Chris proves that a shirt can be ripped off live

Alan Rickman

The programme opened with the news of Alan Rickman’s death, days after David Bowie had died at the same age. Listeners remembered Professor Snape and the other characters which had made Rickman part of their childhoods, while Scott reflected on an exceptionally sad week.

Frostbit Boy releases a single

Scott called Rory from Northern Ireland, remembered by the show as Frostbit Boy after his warning that somebody “wouldn’t be long getting frostbit”. Rory had since left an exam on horseback and now wanted to announce a single, “The Girl for Me”.

The accompanying video featured a woman from Bangor, while Rory hoped Avicii might eventually become involved in his music. He was also planning a plaque at the place where the original frostbite interview happened and invited Scott and Chris to attend its unveiling. They proposed going further and broadcasting from the location.

Rory’s energetic updates continued to make Scott’s day. Listeners compared the track to Mumford & Sons and suggested an Avicii collaboration might not be entirely impossible.

Science and shirt ripping

A listener in Canada attempted to destabilise Chris with a time-zone question. If Australia was in the future, America was in the past and two people travelled around the globe from opposite directions, she wanted to know whether their meeting point would be the past or future. Chris understood enough to object, but not enough to provide a satisfying answer.

During Real or No Real, the show claimed Jason Derulo ripped off a T-shirt at every live performance. Chris said this must require a prepared tear because removing an intact shirt was much harder than it looked. Challenged to demonstrate, he grabbed an old T-shirt and successfully split it down the front in one movement. The claim about Jason was real, and Scott immediately shared the evidence of Chris’s newly discovered ability.