Tag: Christmas
The strange week between Christmas and New Year
Scott and Chris return on Breakfast unsure whether Wednesday still counts as Bamboleo Wednesday when most listeners have only just gone back to work. Chris had to text the previous evening to confirm that the show was really happening before leaving the pub early.
They greet people working through the holiday period and defend themselves against claims that the programme is pre-recorded. A listener heading to New York for her 21st birthday helps by [...]
The mums open the wrong son's presents
Scott and Chris repeat their most uncomfortable Christmas tradition. Each has selected, wrapped and delivered a present to the other's mother, but both mums have been told that the parcel was chosen by their own son.
They call the women and ask them to open the gifts live on air, accepting praise for taste and effort that belongs to somebody else. Scott admits he has invested more thought in Chris's mum than in his own girlfriend, while Chris enjoys the dec [...]
The carollers pick up
The Breakfast show calls the University of Illinois's free Dial-a-Carol service again. A recorded message warns that high demand may create a 15-minute wait, but Scott remains on the line until a volunteer answers and asks for a name, location and request.
The result is an intimate American performance heard live across Britain. After earlier calls with Judge Rinder and M.O, the service has become one of the year's most persistent festive threads, with the hold music and ch [...]
Cheese is now acceptable at breakfast
Scott opens Early Morning Cheese Club at 6.45am. Listeners arrive prepared with Babybel in the car, a one-kilogram wheel of Camembert, Double Gloucester, Stinking Bishop and grated cheddar, while the studio microwaves a fondue powerful enough to drive one cheese-hating producer from the room.
Every caller pulls a cracker with Scott before eating. The jokes are ancient, the toys require assembly and the smell lingers across Radio 1, but Christmas is only four [...]
London fails the Christmas market test
Scott visits the South Bank expecting a major Christmas market and finds only a handful of huts. He asks listeners to nominate somewhere more convincing and considers travelling to Birmingham or another city before the week ends.
The studio has already created its own seasonal atmosphere with crackers and a strong smell of Camembert. One producer is so disturbed by cheese that the decision to serve it early in the morning becomes a genuine workplace problem [...]
The least festive place in the BBC
Scott begins a week of Breakfast cover and complains that Radio 1 does not look sufficiently Christmassy. His solution is to send Chris to the BBC's basement showers, where there is no tinsel and several unsuspecting colleagues are getting ready for work.
Chris hides in a cubicle and softly sings “Little Donkey”, expecting the room to join in. Nobody responds. Scott makes him repeat the song and increase the volume, but the combination of running water, whisper [...]
The window closes at 3.55
Natasha calls to confirm the rules of Relationship Transfer Deadline Day. Scott and Chris decide that anybody considering a break-up must act by 3.55pm, after which it becomes unacceptably cruel to leave a partner during Christmas.
Once the deadline passes, every existing relationship is protected until an unspecified reopening date in January. Natasha has no intention of using the window, but callers with doubts receive a final warning that indecision will commit them [...]
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 [...]