Chris Stark never really clocks off
Chris has been DJing at Kent University, yet still finds time during the drive home to ring a Warwick student radio show in the middle of the night and submit to a full interview. Scott treats this as further evidence that Chris needs sleep. The case strengthens when they inspect the congratulations card for a producer’s new baby: among all the warm messages, Chris has written the opening chant from The Lion King, then signed it as though this were a perfectly normal blessing.
There is also unfinished business from Boss Chicken. Scott has avoided the newly buff colleague since being forced to compliment his chest, while listeners track down Instagram accounts and add fresh confusion. The programme’s other irritation is the single lyric that can spoil an otherwise good song. One caller cannot forgive the hurried “shout out to Whitney” rhyme in Charli XCX’s “After the Afterparty,” and Scott and Chris begin suggesting increasingly strained alternatives.
Busted get what they asked for
James Bourne had previously contacted Chris to say Busted wanted to play Innuendo Bingo, so James, Charlie Simpson and Matt Willis arrive already committed to the ridiculousness. They are in the middle of a tour and have not brought spare clothes, but none of that reduces their enthusiasm. For Chris, who spent his teenage years repeatedly listening to “Sleeping with the Light On,” the booking is a genuine life-goal moment.
The game becomes immediate chaos. Gooey cheese, enormous skid marks, a badly pronounced weightlifter’s name and David Attenborough describing a vast natural feature all defeat somebody. Water goes everywhere, James resembles the Grinch while trying not to laugh, and the band repeatedly reload with the determination of people who actively requested this treatment.
Alice sees through the fiction
Alice Levine supplies a calmer finish with Real or No Real. She works through claims involving unlikely products and an implausible scheme supposedly created in Panama, correctly deciding that the final story is a complete invention. Her judgement produces a perfect 30-point round and a rare opportunity to leave the studio feeling genuinely clever.
Bangers keeps the weekly contest moving, but the lasting image is Busted dripping wet, delighted that James’ old request has finally become reality. A game the band actively pursued delivers precisely the loud, chaotic spectacle they wanted.
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