Jordan North was already hurting
Day two of Jordan North’s Rowing Home challenge had turned the funny premise into something visibly difficult.
Jordan was attempting around 100 miles for Comic Relief, spending long days rowing in cold and wet conditions while the programme followed his progress.
Scott and Chris stressed that the jokes around Jordan did not change how demanding the challenge was. His muscles were aching, fatigue was setting in and even getting out of the boat was becoming difficult.
The next obstacle was a long tunnel, exactly the sort of thing Jordan did not want after days of cold and exhaustion.
Listeners immediately made it worse by sending messages about tunnel spiders, ghosts and other imagined hazards.
The show gave him a Rowerman shanty
Scott decided Jordan needed encouragement in the musical form Britain had briefly become obsessed with during lockdown: the sea shanty.
It was technically a canal rather than the sea, but accuracy was less important than morale.
Scott and Chris adapted the Wellerman idea into a song about Jordan, his boat, his northern food preferences and the increasingly battered state of his body.
The lyrics were deliberately thrown together, including a reference to a cox which listeners immediately challenged on technical grounds.
Scott’s defence was simple: it rhymed and scanned.
Jordan later heard the song and appreciated the effort, even if it was unlikely to become the official anthem of British rowing.
Comic Relief singles took over the quiz
The daily quiz stayed on theme by revisiting old Comic Relief singles.
The team tried to identify charity records by acts including The Saturdays and The Wanted, discovering how many songs had lodged somewhere in their memories without being heard for years.
A day built around Jordan’s challenge therefore ended with exactly the right mixture of genuine support, questionable rowing knowledge and forgotten charity pop.
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