Scott relives the year’s most awkward guests and best bits
The show began revisiting the moments from 2011 that were funny precisely because they had been slightly awkward. Nicki Minaj’s theme tune was an early highlight: an idea the team could barely explain afterwards, but one which she had embraced so enthusiastically that it became impossible to regret.
Scott and Beccy also replayed visits from familiar guests, including Billie Piper during Revision Week, Robbie Savage and Snoop Dogg. The clips showed the programme at its usual best, serious interviews repeatedly being redirected by Scott’s curiosity, Chris’s schemes or Beccy’s refusal to let a peculiar detail pass.
One Direction’s appearances provided another reliable source of chaos. Listeners put on the spot to ask one question often managed to say only that the band were fit, or ask for a proposal, leaving Scott to explain afterwards that this was exactly why people should think of a question before being connected.
Chris’s own contribution was a compilation of his year’s most unlikely ambitions. The schemes included becoming a real-life superhero, a motivational speaker, a film critic and a chick-lit author, before leading inevitably to 24 Years at the Tap End, the autobiography he was still trying to complete on air.
The round-up had the affectionate feel of friends looking back at the year’s nonsense before Christmas. It made clear that the show’s best material had rarely depended on a grand plan: a famous guest, a listener freezing on the phone, or Chris announcing a new career was normally more than enough.
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