James had to retire the ice-cream van
James the private investigator returned with an update on his World Cup surveillance vehicle.
The ice-cream van had been extremely useful because it could sit outside pubs without looking suspicious.
The problem was Radio 1.
Listeners had started approaching ice-cream vans and jokingly asking whether the driver was James the PI.
It had happened often enough that James thought the disguise might have to be retired.
A surveillance vehicle was not much use once the public associated it with a national radio feature.
A funeral was the only place a wanted man might appear
James then described one of his strangest undercover jobs.
He was looking for a man who had gone into hiding.
The family of somebody who had died believed the funeral might be one of the few events important enough to bring him back into public.
They asked James to attend.
He therefore had to arrive at a funeral and behave as if he knew the deceased.
Scott immediately saw the difficulty.
At a wedding, a stranger could often plausibly belong to the other side of the family.
A funeral could be much harder to bluff.
James still managed it by keeping the story vague enough to avoid inviting detailed questions.
He watched for the man they were trying to locate without becoming the focus himself.
The feature then drifted into the uncomfortable but real subject of people meeting or flirting around wakes and funerals.
One listener said she had met her eventual husband in a nightclub after his grandmother’s wake.
“It’s coming home” went to the exes
World Cup excitement inspired a risky listener challenge.
Text an ex-partner with nothing except: “It’s coming home.”
Then send Radio 1 the response.
Some exes understood the football reference immediately.
One replied with three house emojis.
Another responded aggressively but still confirmed the football enthusiasm.
Producer Mark sent the phrase to more than one ex.
One asked whether it was some kind of football reference.
Another simply replied: “Hi, is this Mark?”
Scott had expected the challenge to create awkwardness.
In some cases it appeared to reopen surprisingly friendly conversations.
Good News Jamie returned
The programme finished with another appearance from Good News Jamie, the relentlessly enthusiastic listener who had become a regular source of optimism.
Jamie was preparing to get a tattoo and also revealed that he planned to propose to his girlfriend in a few weeks.
The team quickly realised that his girlfriend could not be allowed to hear that particular part of the call.
Jamie’s excitement was so infectious that listeners were already demanding more appearances and suggesting he deserved his own show.
He even arrived with his own version of a George Ezra song, adapted into a football-themed chant.
Scott and Chris increasingly treated Thursday as the natural home for him.
The week had included football injuries, funeral surveillance and relationship risks.
Good News Jamie was there to make sure it still ended happily.
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