Scott gets hooked on Olympic diving
Listener Andy opened the show after appearing in Danny Boyle’s Olympic opening ceremony as a peasant who stared in shock during the transformation of the stadium. Scott found the precise moment on BBC iPlayer and decided Andy’s startled expression had been unusually convincing, especially for somebody being watched by a worldwide audience. Andy explained that open auditions had divided the volunteers into different groups, with the older and less synchronised performers placed in the opening sequence, and judged the ceremony a greater achievement than his previous appearance on Tipping Point.
Scott and Chris tried to improve Britain’s disappointing summer by encouraging the audience to think positively about sunshine. James claimed that he and three friends had once moved cloud cover through the power of thought during a meteor shower, while listeners began reporting bright spells in Whitby, York, Hull, Newcastle and elsewhere. The experiment appeared to be working until rain arrived in Leicester and the sunshine disappeared from Tunbridge Wells, although Chris remained convinced that playing Scouting for Girls’ “Summertime in the City” had helped.
The finalists in Radio 1’s Superstar DJ competition tackled a mixing challenge before two of them were eliminated. Scott met Elliot Kay, Hannah Jakes and Rick Wainwright, heard how Elliot had recently lost his regular Saturday-night DJ job, and attempted to improve all three of their professional names. His suggestions included Hannah the Love Jakes, Elliot the Big OK and DJ Wainwright and Turntable, none of which sounded certain to survive beyond the programme.
Dan and Phil returned with the final results of their search for unusual webcam performers for the Fun and Filth Cabaret in Edinburgh. Their discoveries included a woman who played drums with her face, somebody threading safety pins through a tongue piercing, a flaming unicyclist dressed as a llama and people with impressive control over their tongues or eyelids. The previous auditions from Dido-style Crazy Frog singer Katie, invented-language performer Kirk and suspiciously Chris Martin-like melodica player Matt were also revisited before entries closed.
Scott then became engrossed in the men’s synchronised ten-metre platform diving, particularly the brief trunks, the competitors’ jacuzzi and Tom Daley’s distinctive method of turning on the shower. He offered an improvised commentary despite not knowing how the scoring worked and suggested that BBC Sport could use him on the red button. The Olympic interest also inspired plans for a vest-and-pants edition of Innuendo Bingo, while Oh, What’s Occurring? counted ten mentions of New York by a Radio 1 presenter who had just returned from the city.
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