Everyone needed Dickie
Scott and Chris had first met Dickie, the New Forest cider maker behind Dickie’s Dribble, during Funny Business in February.
His laugh became much more memorable than the original company-name joke.
Listeners immediately wanted him back.
Now, with people confined to home and the national mood transformed, Radio 1 decided Dickie’s laugh had become almost therapeutic.
Tickle Dickie returned.
The jokes barely mattered
Listeners phoned with jokes designed to make Dickie laugh.
Often Dickie started before the punchline.
That had always been the feature’s strength.
Nobody was really judging joke quality.
The sound of Dickie enjoying himself made everybody else laugh too.
Scott described it as exactly the kind of thing the programme could provide while more serious broadcasters handled the news.
A few minutes where nothing important needed solving.
The show had received the government text
The programme also referred to the public information arriving on people’s phones and the rapidly changing instructions about staying at home.
The archive captures the odd intimacy of a national policy suddenly becoming something everybody was discussing from kitchens, spare bedrooms and sofas.
Scott and Chris did not try to become health experts.
They kept returning listeners towards the official guidance and then back to the things they could safely do on air.
Chris was avoiding Scott’s booty blast
Scott wanted Chris to join a 10am home workout, described as a booty blast.
Chris was reluctant.
Working from home had already removed much of the structure from his day.
Scott thought a scheduled exercise session would help.
Chris suspected it would simply give Scott another reason to shout instructions at him through a screen.
The argument was pure normal Scott-and-Chris banter transplanted into an abnormal setting.
Gemma Collins met Steve again
The archive feature brought back Gemma Collins against Superfan Steve.
Gemma had believed she was speaking to an enormous fan.
Chris was actually in another studio with all the answers.
One of the best parts was Gemma trying to help the supposedly nervous Steve win because it was Christmas.
Replaying it gave listeners one of 2019’s strongest celebrity moments at a time when new studio appearances were becoming impossible.
Don’t Look It Up settled in
The new quiz returned too.
Scott and Chris were quickly learning that a game designed around not using the internet worked particularly well when both presenter and audience were surrounded by phones and laptops.
The programme’s structure was changing.
Dickie, Steve and a simple quiz made the change feel less severe.
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