Sheridan Smith joins the Mighty Ducks musical
Sheridan Smith visited after a year in which Scott had admired both her comic performance in Legally Blonde: The Musical and her much more emotional role in Mrs Biggs. Chris, newly interested in becoming a West End star, quickly tried to recruit her for his proposed stage version of The Mighty Ducks. Tim Minchin had already said that the underdog story could make a good musical and Chris had promoted him to songwriter, leaving Sheridan to choose her own part.
She initially suggested an ugly duckling who had lost her quack and asked for a solo. The plan changed when Scott explained that The Mighty Ducks was not about ducks at all, but an ice-hockey team. Sheridan immediately withdrew her enthusiasm, having imagined a colourful family show about actual birds. Chris offered to write a duck into the story so she could play the team’s mascot, which was enough to keep her provisionally involved.
Chris also remembered Sheridan as Rudi in Gavin & Stacey and persuaded her to revisit the character’s rap. She managed much more of it than she expected, despite warning that it had been years since filming. The performance underlined how easily she could switch between the broad comedy of Rudi and the serious work for which she had recently been praised.
Working with acting royalty on Quartet
Sheridan discussed Quartet, Dustin Hoffman’s film about retired opera singers living together in a care home. She played the home’s nurse alongside a cast that included Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly, Michael Gambon and Pauline Collins. Being one of the youngest people on set allowed her to listen to stories from performers she regarded as acting royalty.
Maggie Smith had also supported Sheridan during her stage work and sent her a present after Hedda Gabler. Scott imagined a similar retirement home for former DJs, where he could sit in a rocking chair until somebody wheeled him into a Radio 2 studio. Sheridan, meanwhile, was preparing to appear with David Walliams in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. When Chris asked her to find him a West End job, she offered him a place as one of her fairies, feeding her grapes on stage. It was not the heroic role he had pictured, but it was the closest he had yet come to a genuine offer.
Rhianna Dhillon plays Innuendo Bingo
Rhianna Dhillon faced Chris in the first Innuendo Bingo staged in Radio 1’s new studios. The team had protected the room with so much plastic sheeting that it resembled a crime scene, while Rhianna arrived in Lycra leggings and immediately embraced the chance to soak Chris at close range.
The clips included an Antiques Roadshow expert describing a woman with her hands in a muff, BBC Breakfast reporting that James Arthur had beaten off his competition, and a sailor taking out his cannon to salute people crossing a finish line. Coronation Street supplied a complaint about somebody shoving a large lollipop in a woman’s face, while The Gadget Show invited viewers to look at a magic box.
Rhianna repeatedly caught Chris before he could react, including one shot which landed on his head and ruined his hair. Further clips found Anne Diamond announcing that everyone had wood, Matt Damon swinging a very large bell and a visitor being told that he could not enter a messy grotto. Chris finished considerably wetter, leaving Rhianna delighted with her first game in the new studio.
Jason Manford prepares for a year on tour
Jason Manford arrived with an injured hand and avoided a handshake by trying Chris’s decisive single-cheek greeting instead. The result left him commenting on the unexpected combination of Chris’s soft lips and facial stubble. Jason was preparing for an extensive comedy tour running from June to December 2013, and admitted that every new ticket sale brought pressure to find enough material for the full show.
He was also helping Greg James collect messages for British service personnel in Afghanistan. Having visited injured personnel in Birmingham, Jason said their experiences left him questioning the importance of his own everyday worries. The team invited listeners with relatives or partners serving overseas to send messages for his appearance on Greg’s programme.
Real or No Real
Jason correctly identified that a modern smartphone had more computing power than the first Space Shuttle, but rejected the claim that a person’s nose was exactly as long as their middle toe. Chris removed a shoe to test it, only to abandon the attempt when bringing his foot to his face became too painful.
Old women beneath wheelchair blankets were not retired mermaids, although Jason accepted that nobody could conclusively check. Eighty-one people really were injured each year while running from the shower to answer the door, but making a cow laugh would not cause milk to come from its nose. Jason finished with a perfect 50 points.
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