Bangers
Bangers was a popular music game on Scott Mills's BBC Radio 1 afternoon show, where Scott and Chris Stark each championed a track and listeners decided which one deserved to be played. These articles revisit the musical battles, questionable choices and arguments that made the feature a favourite.
The bridge survives the fire
Scott wakes to thousands of messages after a serious overnight fire at Fleet Services on the M3. Nobody is injured and firefighters control the blaze, but the services and the pedestrian bridge joining the northbound and southbound sites suffer smoke damage.
Reporter Joe Palmer visits the scene and confirms that the Scott Mills Bridge is standing and at least one commemorative plaque is intact. The windows are blackened and crossing is temporarily restricted, yet the [...]
A completely unexpected ex appears
One of Scott's former partners appears in an advert for a major phone, television and broadband company. There is no hostility between them, but seeing an ex unexpectedly on television and Facebook feels stranger than meeting them in a shopping centre.
Listeners immediately try to identify the man, forcing Scott to rule out several advertising faces without narrowing the answer too far. He is more interested in other curveball sightings: exes appearing on Take [...]
Josh and Dan enter the wet area
Josh Franceschi and Dan Flint from You Me at Six play Innuendo Bingo together, giving Chris the unusual job of facing two band members at once. Their pop-star conversation includes touring, food and Josh's unexpected afternoon appointment at the vet.
The clips travel through cooking, farming and Countryfile, with Dan and Josh sometimes directing their water at each other rather than Chris. Their shared history makes it easy to anticipate which line will break the [...]
One listener saves her best-of-year buzzer
Gemma has spent 2016 waiting for something worthy of her imaginary “best thing of the year” buzzer. December has arrived and she still cannot decide whether any moment has justified pressing it, creating the danger that a carefully rationed reaction will go unused.
Scott understands the problem because social media describes several things every day as the best ever. He advises Gemma to stop preserving the moment indefinitely, and the arrival of the new [...]
A favour becomes a soaking
After weeks of support during Strictly Come Dancing, Judge Rinder agrees by text to play Innuendo Bingo for Scott. No publicist appears to have explained the format, and his repeated question about why he must get wet suggests the commitment was made before he understood it.
Rinder arrives openly reluctant and briefly looks capable of walking out. He nevertheless fills his mouth with water, faces Chris and completes the clips, protesting at both the material and the st [...]
Unlucky Gary sends the wrong cards
Unlucky Gary writes all his Christmas cards before finally reading the message on the front. The pudding design declares that calories do not count at Christmas, meaning he may have sent a tactless message to colleagues and relatives for whom it is completely unsuitable.
Scott and Chris wonder whether anybody still posts a full set of cards and advise Gary to inspect the recipients before delivery. It is another low-level disaster for a man whose ordinary erran [...]
Professor Green investigates Danny Dyer
Danny Dyer's episode of Who Do You Think You Are? reveals a line back to royalty and introduces another professor during his visit to the Tower Hamlets archive. Scott and Chris immediately hear the title as an invitation to imagine Professor Green conducting the research.
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That sends them through other people who appear to share the name, including a children's e [...]
Another BBC opportunity emerges
Chris's Celebrity Mastermind appearance, with Scott as his specialist subject, is still awaiting its Christmas broadcast when another booking arrives. This time Scott and Chris can take part together in Glasgow on a returning programme involving robots.
They initially try not to name it, but the clues and conversation with Sam McTrusty make the answer obvious: they are filming Robot Wars. The sleeper train back to London is almost as exciting to Scott as operating [...]
Chris invites the wrong waitress
Chris assumes both First Dates waitresses are appearing and publicly asks Laura Tott why she is not coming. Only CiCi Coleman has actually been booked, leaving Laura to reply that she is still waiting for her invitation.
CiCi explains that the restaurant team have become a family and remembers the contestant who tried to move Laura into his date's chair while the actual date visited the toilet. She also discusses the Wolf of Worthing and his extraordinary joke ab [...]
LL Cool J enters the 1950s
Scott replays what may be the worst answer ever given on The Chase. Asked who had a 1950s number one with “Stranger in Paradise”, contestant David responds “LL Cool J” before the correct answer, Tony Bennett, arrives.
The pressure of the studio explains an answer from the first name that entered his head, but Scott cannot stop imagining LL Cool J launching his career decades early. It also confirms the programme's old rule that the most extraordinary multiple-choice op [...]