Brian Butterfield brings business advice and Beccy puts science to the test
The show began with Chloe admitting that she had lied to Ben Fogle on the Saturday programme. She had claimed to have dressed as him at a fancy-dress party after copying a friend’s story, then found herself having to improvise when the programme called her back.
Scott was particularly excited about the day’s guest, businessman Brian Butterfield. He positioned Peter Serafinowicz’s fictional entrepreneur as an even more important authority than Alan Sugar, promising listeners the kind of advice only a man with fingers in several imaginary pies could provide.
Greg Foot also returned for National Science Week, following the chilli experiment that had left Chris suffering for days. His new demonstration tested whether swearing could help people withstand pain, using buckets of ice water instead of anything involving more hot food.
Scott and Beccy first had to keep their hands in the water while saying the show’s clean substitute, “Go on, pigs”. They then repeated it while their actual expletives were censored. Beccy improved from 34 to 48 seconds, while Scott went from 36 seconds to 54.
Greg explained that the effect was not merely distraction: swearing could trigger a fight-or-flight response and release chemicals that helped people tolerate pain. The experiment left Scott rather proud of his own result, while the programme retained the sensible conclusion that the trick works best for people who do not swear all the time.
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