Radio 1 was back after Christmas
Scott and Chris opened their first normal show of 2019 sounding genuinely pleased simply to be doing the programme again.
Both had spent the weekend in South Wales. Chris had been at Newport County’s FA Cup win over Leicester City, while Scott had been in Cardiff and Bridgend, where he had somehow ended up behind the counter of a coffee shop.
The break had also allowed weeks of small observations to build up, so the first show back became a rapid clear-out of everything they had wanted to talk about while they were off.
Scott’s January diet advice was questionable
Scott had returned to one of his regular January habits: trying to find ways of eating less without giving up the taste of the foods he actually wanted.
His suggestions included freezing individual squares of chocolate and sucking them slowly so they lasted longer.
He also recommended a friend’s idea of roasting frozen peas until they became a crispy desk snack.
Chris remembered an older Scott diet technique which involved licking chips rather than eating them, made worse by the revelation that the chips had sometimes belonged to somebody at a neighbouring table.
Scott insisted the 2019 ideas were more sophisticated.
Chris was not convinced.
The Vegan Whisperer came back
The show then revived Meat2Veg, built around Chris’s claim that he could hear whether somebody ate meat simply from their voice.
The programme described him as the Vegan Whisperer.
There was no scientific basis for the skill.
That had never stopped Chris before.
Callers were put through the usual test while Scott treated every hesitation, tone and vocal quality as though it might reveal somebody’s relationship with animal products.
The ridiculous part remained that Chris had previously been right often enough for the pair to think the game somehow worked.
January’s return proved the feature had survived the Christmas break.
Evil reality-TV judges felt dated
Scott also complained about the old-fashioned “panto villain” role on talent and reality programmes.
He replayed examples of judges deliberately trying to be cruel for entertainment and contrasted them with a softer style on newer shows.
Craig Revel Horwood’s older Strictly comments and the deliberately harsh judging on programmes such as *Dancing on Ice* became examples.
Scott’s argument was not that judges should lie.
He was simply bored of somebody being cast as the person who had to be nasty because every panel supposedly needed a villain.
Lewis Capaldi was already becoming part of the show
Lewis Capaldi’s “Someone You Loved” was Radio 1’s Tune of the Week.
Scott and Chris were already amused by Lewis’s social-media response to the support, including the deliberately over-the-top way he celebrated the prospect of radio royalties.
The relationship would become one of January’s main threads.
Within days Lewis would be in the studio, singing Miley Cyrus and becoming one of the programme’s favourite new guests.
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