The perfect boyfriend on paper
With Valentine’s Day approaching, Chris offered a free service to single listeners whose relatives kept asking when they would find a partner. He would not actually date anyone, but would telephone the person applying the pressure and present himself as an exceptionally impressive boyfriend.
Helen was generally happy being single, but her sister Amy wanted her to settle down with somebody local. Chris gathered the requirements, adopted a new identity and promised to make Amy jealous of the relationship rather than sorry for her sister.
The call unravelled almost immediately. Chris tried to establish too many perfect qualities at once, while Amy responded to every claim with suspicion rather than excitement. Helen concluded that he had oversold himself and could not recommend the service. If anything, the experience made finding a real boyfriend appear easier.
Chris refused to close the business after one poor result. Every new company had difficult early days, he argued, and the week-long trial still had time to produce a success.
Choosing the music
The previous day’s argument about “Right Round” became a daily feature. Scott and Chris each selected a song without knowing the other’s choice, then handed control to a listener who decided which one Radio 1 would play.
The simple format immediately made both men more competitive than intended. A victory was no longer merely a chance to hear an old record; it became proof that one of them understood the audience better than the other.
Day two of the Gregathlon
Greg James reached day two of his five-triathlon challenge already exhausted. Scott and Chris checked in while he was running, tracked the growing Sport Relief total and passed on messages from listeners following him around the country.
Barbara Windsor joined Real or No Real, where the facts included a claim about an Australian father hiding his favourite football team’s name backwards inside his daughter’s unusual name. She also discovered that photographs of her feet had appeared on WikiFeet, following the previous day’s conversation with Alice.
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