Katie was only the beginning
The previous day’s discussion of serial returners had produced somebody whose shopping habit made Katie’s look restrained.
Radio 1 called Lauren.
Her voice was altered because she did not want retailers identifying her.
Scott asked how bad the ordering could become.
Lauren described the search for one Christmas-party dress.
She ordered 120 dresses.
The total value of the orders was £3,410.
She returned all except one.
Scott and Chris were stunned.
The postwoman, workplace receptionist and everybody helping move the parcels had effectively become part of Lauren’s wardrobe-selection process.
Parcels arrived constantly
Lauren explained that the orders did not necessarily come as one enormous delivery.
Packages arrived repeatedly.
At work, the receptionist could receive several for her in one day.
Colleagues sometimes helped carry everything to her car.
Lauren kept ordering because each batch failed to produce the exact sparkly Christmas-party look she wanted.
Eventually one dress survived.
The other 119 went back.
Scott said this was easily the most extreme example they had heard.
New year, new returner
Lauren insisted January had been different.
She described 2019 as a new year, new me period and said she had not yet started another major ordering cycle.
Scott and Chris were not convinced the transformation would last once another big event appeared.
The scale of the Christmas operation had moved the discussion beyond ordinary indecision.
Even the show’s anonymous caller sounded slightly amazed by the total when it was read back.
Innuendo Bingo finally had its first guest
Then came the announcement listeners had been waiting for.
The redesigned Innuendo Bingo would return the following Wednesday at 3pm.
The first guest in the wet seat was:
Davina McCall.
Scott was amazed Davina had never played before.
She had apparently messaged him repeatedly asking when she would finally be invited.
The feature’s long break meant the opportunity had taken years to arrive.
Now the new set would begin with one of British television’s most recognisable presenters being sprayed with water by Chris.
The Daniel Radcliffe classic set the standard
To remind everybody what the feature could become, Radio 1 replayed Daniel Radcliffe’s classic Innuendo Bingo.
The old clips involving pistachios, people being blown off and Charlie Sloth helping his cousin Jack remained almost impossible for Chris and Daniel to survive.
Scott knew the new version had a difficult standard to match.
The first guest suggested they were planning to start properly.
Bamboleo Wednesday carried on regardless
Bamboleo Wednesday also appeared in the middle of the serial-returner and Bingo excitement.
The show inserted another collection of archive clips into the instrumental break.
January had spent weeks looking backwards through classic Radio 1 audio while simultaneously rebuilding one of its biggest old features.
On the final Wednesday of the month, those two ideas met perfectly.
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