The temperature gun became an actual feature
Scott had promised to bring his home temperature gun into Radio 1.
He did.
That produced Radio 1’s Hottest Employee of the Day.
The joke was deliberately literal.
Scott moved around the largely empty office at a safe distance, pointed the thermometer at staff members and wrote the readings on a clipboard.
Yasmin Evans registered 35.9°C.
Roger reached 36.
Tom got 36.1.
Then Dan Gough appeared with 36.3°C and took the crown.
The winner was not supposed to have a fever.
He simply needed to be warmer than the other healthy employees.
The Great British Bore Off found students stuck in isolation
Messages were coming in from university students who had very little to do.
Two callers from Nottingham became the centre of the feature.
Both were isolating.
Both had coronavirus.
Both were extremely bored.
Scott even jokingly took their temperatures remotely as they compared their situations.
They were not from the same household and did not know each other.
The only thing linking them was being young, stuck inside and desperate enough for entertainment that appearing on Radio 1 sounded like a major event.
Radio became a substitute for Freshers’ Week
The conversation captured how strange university life had become.
Students had moved away expecting halls, societies and nights out.
Instead many were spending long periods confined to rooms and flats.
Scott and Chris tried to turn boredom itself into a competition.
Who had less to do?
Who had been stuck inside longest?
Who had the worst entertainment options?
The Great British Bore Off was less a game than a portrait of Freshers’ Week in 2020.
Chris was still being assessed from the passenger seat
Chris also talked about driving with his dad.
Despite being a fully grown adult who had held a licence for years, he still felt judged whenever his dad sat beside him.
Every gear change, junction and parking decision suddenly felt like part of an unofficial driving test.
Listeners recognised the experience immediately.
Passing your test apparently does not stop some parents from behaving as though they remain the examiner forever.
Don’t Look It Up discovered just how many islands Britain has
The quiz opened with Year Six geography.
Scott and Chris were asked how many islands make up the United Kingdom.
Their guesses were in the dozens.
The answer was 6,289.
Neither was remotely close.
They also struggled with the point on the UK mainland furthest north and other supposedly school-level geography.
A later round used foreign-language versions of pop songs.
The combination of basic geography and transformed hits produced one of those quiz days designed mainly to make two adults feel they had forgotten everything they ever learned.
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