19 December 2019
19 December 2019
The last daily show of 2019
Scott and Chris opened the podcast by making the status of the programme clear.
This was their last one of 2019.
After a year of LOLathons, Superfan Steve, Stark Guides, conception stories, holiday shirts and listener mysteries, Radio 1 had reached the point where the show could finally look backwards.
Scott described the year as the year of Capaldi.
That made the final major guest an obvious choice.
The automatic transcript repeatedly turns Lewis Capaldi into Joel Corry, but the source title, songs and entire interview identify Lewis clearly.
Christmas Confessions had one final day
The anonymous confessions also reached their deadline.
Earlier stories were replayed as a reminder of how far the feature had escalated.
Laura admitted having a crush involving her best friend’s boyfriend and her husband’s friendship circle.
Jack described becoming intimate with his ex-girlfriend’s brother.
Louise, while in hospital, admitted repeatedly having sexual dreams about a female colleague who was straight and married to a man.
And Craig’s belief that he had somehow chosen the “wrong” identical twin returned one more time.
Scott and Chris reminded him, again, that identical twins were two separate people rather than interchangeable romantic options.
“Brian” had a Christmas-party confession
The final anonymous caller used the fake name Brian.
His workplace was a hotel.
For the staff Christmas party, the hotel had booked another hotel.
A free bar followed.
Then members of staff moved on to a nightclub.
The group included senior people from work, including the general manager and owners.
After enough drinks, Brian and a friend ended up kissing two of the senior women.
The problem was not simply that colleagues had crossed professional boundaries.
A nightclub photographer was present.
Club photographers preserved the evidence
Brian remembered the next morning that photographs had been taken.
Scott immediately understood the fear.
A dark club allowed people to feel anonymous.
The photographer’s flash could turn one moment into a permanent image online.
Brian said there were close photographs of the kissing.
The night then continued beyond the club and back towards the hotel.
Scott and Chris became increasingly grateful for the voice changer.
The confession also launched a wider complaint about nightclub photographers capturing people in backgrounds without them even realising.
A perfectly innocent picture of two people posing could contain somebody else’s worst moment several metres behind them.
Listeners chose their highlights
The programme then asked the audience what they wanted to hear again from 2019.
Suggestions immediately returned to some of the year’s defining moments.
Cheryl against Superfan Steve.
Gemma Collins against Superfan Steve.
The Stark Guides.
Scott’s failed attempt to become a hand model.
Lewis Capaldi singing “The Climb.”
The whole exercise demonstrated how many recurring features had been created or expanded during the year.
Scott and Chris thanked listeners not simply for listening but for supplying the stories which actually made the programme work.
Scott’s fingers returned for one last insult
One listener selected the hand-model verdict from August.
Scott had sent photographs of his hands to a professional after discovering how lucrative hand modelling could be.
The expert had focused on the volume of his fingers.
Months later, Scott still disliked hearing it.
Chris still enjoyed it.
The clip had moved from one afternoon’s humiliation into a year-end highlight.
Lewis Capaldi returned
Then Lewis joined.
Scott and Chris could not get over how different his life looked compared with roughly a year earlier.
Around the same time in 2018, Lewis had sent the programme a video from Scotland while Scott and Chris were finishing their book.
At that point “Someone You Loved” had not yet become the enormous international hit it would be.
Lewis said that, while making the album, he genuinely had not known what the song or record would do.
By December 2019, the single had been out for almost a year and his career had expanded across Europe, America and Australia.
Scott and Chris had watched much of that change from unusually close range.
The bank card still failed around celebrities
Scott read Lewis some of the headlines from his own year.
One involved his bank card being declined while buying tequila shots for Sam Smith during a celebrity night in Los Angeles.
Lewis confirmed the story.
He joked that his cards had a habit of failing at exactly the moment famous people were nearby.
Another occasion involved Nile Rodgers and Jack Whitehall among the people around him.
Lewis insisted the problem was not a tax scandal or a lack of earnings.
He was simply bad at knowing which card currently contained the money he wanted to spend.
Scott loved the contrast.
One of the year’s biggest new artists could still stand at a bar trying several cards while somebody else eventually paid.
Fairytale of New York became the festive ending
Lewis also performed a version of The Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York.”
The source introduction describes it as beautiful enough to bring a tear to the eye.
Elsewhere in the show, listeners claimed they were crying too, although some jokingly specified that it was not necessarily in a good way.
That tone suited the relationship between Lewis and the programme perfectly.
A sincere song.
A deliberately unserious reaction.
The final big guest of the year refusing to become too polished.
The show thanked the listeners
As the highlights continued, Scott and Chris reflected on listeners who had discovered the 1–4pm programme during the year and those who had been there much longer.
They stressed that listener stories, calls, messages and willingness to participate were what allowed the daily show to exist in its particular form.
2019 had produced some enormous celebrity bookings.
Its archive was just as dependent on people calling about bananas, relationships, old T-shirts, conception stories and ordinary lives.
The regular daily archive ended there.
Lewis Capaldi had one more December file waiting.
It contained the parts daytime Radio 1 could not broadcast.
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