Chris was finally back in the room
After months of doing the show from home, Chris returned to Broadcasting House and sat across the studio from Scott for the first time since March.
“Across the studio” was very literal.
BBC coronavirus rules meant Chris had been given a small temporary table positioned well away from Scott, complete with markings on the floor and a rule that one presenter had to move away if the other needed to pass.
Chris thought the setup looked like a table somebody might use for a school cake sale.
Scott decided it needed a grander name.
After remembering an American television station that called its desk area the “newsplex”, the pair eventually treated Chris’s tiny table as a command centre.
The BBC appeared to have cancelled him
The bigger problem was the computer.
Because Chris had not physically logged into a BBC machine for months, his normal account no longer seemed to work.
He tried resetting passwords, proving who he was and repeatedly waiting for an ancient-looking BBC computer to finish preparing his desktop.
Listeners became oddly invested in whether he would ever be allowed back into the system.
Scott joked that the BBC had simply decided Chris had left while nobody was looking.
One phrase can destroy a best mate
The show asked listeners for the tiny words or phrases capable of instantly annoying their closest friends.
Unlucky Gary apparently hated over-familiar “babe” messages, especially when written as “BBZ”.
Another listener said simply replying “okay” was enough to wind up a friend.
Scott and Chris then tried the theory live on a listener’s mate, repeatedly using the nickname he hated until he immediately snapped back and told them to stop.
The feature proved that years of friendship often reduce somebody’s entire emotional trigger system to one stupid word.
Mo’s Channel 4 announcement became a show favourite
They also replayed a television continuity announcement from former Radio 1 colleague Mo.
He had been required to introduce a Channel 4 programme called *Me and My Penis* with the calm, serious voice expected of a television announcer.
Mo explained that getting through the introduction without laughing had required several takes.
Scott and Chris naturally made him perform it again.
Blow Your Own Trumpet returned for tiny achievements
Listeners were invited to celebrate accomplishments which might not impress anybody else.
One had passed an exam.
Another had finally learned how to ask a smart speaker to boil the kettle.
Someone else had changed a car bulb without calling her dad.
The point was not that these were world-changing achievements.
They were simply things people were pleased with, and Radio 1 would provide the trumpet fanfare nobody else was going to give them.
Don’t Look It Up remembered 2013
The quiz included questions from 2013 and forgotten Live Lounge performances.
Grand Theft Auto V, Richard III being discovered beneath a Leicester car park and Ylvis having an accidental hit with *The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?)* all appeared.
A later round dug into Live Lounge covers Scott and Chris had almost completely forgotten, including Adele covering Cheryl’s *Promise This*.
Chris took the first in-studio quiz battle since his return.
COMMENTS