26 September 2026: Radio 1’s biggest birthday party, Cute FM and a surfing rivalry

Sam and Danni threw what they dubbed Radio 1’s biggest birthday party, welcomed listeners into the slightly unhinged world of Cute FM, battled over who was the better surfer and somehow attempted a radio version of a piñata.

With 26 September apparently the most common birthday in England and Wales, there was really only one way for Sam and Danni to spend their Saturday afternoon: celebrating as many birthdays as possible.

Radio 1’s biggest birthday party

The show began with birthday messages pouring in from listeners around the UK, including 18-year-old twins, 11-year-olds, four-year-olds and plenty of adults who probably didn’t need reminding that their parents had enjoyed the previous New Year.

Sam and Danni decided they needed to turn the whole programme into one enormous birthday party, although deciding exactly what that meant proved more difficult.

Ideas from listeners included lighting one giant candle for everyone to blow out together, dedicating an entire minute to birthday messages and, slightly ambitiously, getting Tom Holland to wish everyone a happy birthday.

Sam admitted that particular suggestion might be beyond the programme’s resources.

Later, birthday girl G joined them while preparing for a day involving food, drinks and a retro arcade with her boyfriend, whose birthday was just three days later.

G revealed that she didn’t actually like birthday cake, but there was something Radio 1 could offer her instead: her favourite song, Faithless’ Insomnia.

Unfortunately, Sam decided she would have to earn it.

He unveiled the imaginary Radio 1 piñata, a “big meaty neon pink unicorn” supposedly containing G’s requested song. Despite Danni repeatedly pointing out that neither they nor the audience could actually see G wearing a blindfold or hitting anything, G was instructed to spin around and make increasingly enthusiastic noises as she attempted to smash the fictional piñata through the power of radio.

Eventually, it apparently broke and G got her song.

The birthday celebrations finished with Charlie Hedges joining Sam and Danni for a frantic race through as many birthday messages as possible while the music underneath them became progressively faster.

Radio 1 Drive-Thru

Elsewhere, Jodie from Port Talbot pulled into Radio 1’s Drive-Thru looking for a song that was “sweet, sour and crunchy”.

Danni offered Ariana Grande’s thank u, next, arguing that Ariana had one of pop’s sweetest voices, some sour relationship reflections and a little “side-eye crunch”.

Sam countered with Britney Spears’ Toxic, describing it with rather more adjectives than Danni thought were necessary.

Jodie chose Britney.

Even Danni eventually admitted she would rather hear Toxic, although listener Dave strongly disagreed and messaged the programme to declare it a “terrible decision”.

Welcome to Cute FM

At 2.10pm, Radio 1 temporarily disappeared.

Listeners were instead transported to Cute FM, broadcasting from a land where the sun always shines, clouds are made from candyfloss and, according to Sam, sneezing produces glitter rather than anything less pleasant.

Presiding over it all was Danni Diston, the Queen of Cute.

There were rules, though. Babies, pets and miniature things were all banned from consideration, and this week’s Cute List had an autumn theme.

Sam started strongly by nominating conkers, describing them as “nature’s Kinder Egg”. They gained additional points because spiders supposedly dislike them, making them an immediate addition to the kingdom.

Listeners then submitted their own suggestions.

Knitted covers on phone and post boxes were accepted after Danni said they brought her joy.

Tiny pumpkins looked promising until the Queen remembered one of her most important laws: no miniatures.

Reflections in autumn puddles made the list, partly because Danni admitted she enjoyed seeing her own reflection.

Whipped cream on hot drinks absolutely did not.

By the end, the Queen was so disappointed with some of her subjects’ suggestions that she threatened to shut the borders of the Land of Cute entirely.

What You’re Asking

Maya from Manchester took on What You’re Asking, the game where Sam and Danni provide the answers and the listener has to invent the questions.

Among Maya’s solutions:

For Freshers, she asked where people go to get really drunk during their first week at university.

For pumpkin spice lattes, she asked what every “it girl” gets at this time of year.

For football, she asked what people get really excited about every four years, before realising football does, in fact, happen quite a lot more often than that.

A conker became something that falls out of a tree and hurts you, despite Maya admitting she had never actually been injured by one.

Her best answer might have come when given mayonnaise.

“What does my name sound like?”

It turned out Maya had spent years explaining her name by comparing it to mayonnaise.

The round finished with a perfect score of 10.

Who is the better surfer?

Perhaps the most important dispute of the afternoon concerned something Sam and Danni had done away from the studio.

They had gone for a surfing lesson together.

For two friends who have known each other for nearly a decade, it should have been a pleasant bonding exercise.

Instead, it became intensely competitive.

Danni claimed their instructor had looked Sam directly in the eye and told him that she was doing better.

Sam remembered events rather differently.

He insisted the instructor had effectively identified him as future world surfing championship material, while Danni repeatedly demanded that he simply admit she had beaten him.

The argument continued either side of Harry Styles, with Danni accusing Sam of refusing to acknowledge that a woman had been better than him at something.

Sam attempted to explain himself.

Danni refused to let him.

No definitive winner was established.

Also on the show

Sam discovered he had lost the bottle of mayonnaise he brings into Radio 1 every weekend, something Danni already considered questionable behaviour even before it went missing.

The pair introduced new music from Taylor Swift as their Tune of the Weekend, played BBC Introducing Track of the Week from girl group XO and looked back at the previous night’s Europe’s Biggest Dance Show.

There was also plenty of music from across Radio 1’s playlist before Sam and Danni handed over to Charlie Hedges and Dance Anthems at 4pm.

But really, 26 September belonged to everyone celebrating a birthday.

And, thanks to Sam and Danni, at least one of them had to smash an entirely imaginary piñata to get their favourite song played.