Places that never get mentioned
Scott dedicated the Good Morning Minute to villages, towns and small communities listeners believed had never previously been mentioned on Radio 2.
Rather than asking only for names, he encouraged each person to include one detail that explained what made the place distinctive. The resulting minute moved between tiny settlements, local landmarks and pronunciations Scott had to attempt at speed.
The feature gave listeners the satisfaction of hearing somewhere usually absent from national broadcasting included in the morning roll call.
Has anybody actually won a television competition?
Scott said he did not know a single person who had entered a television competition and won, despite programmes regularly offering houses, cars, holidays and large cash prizes.
Listeners responded with stories of prizes ranging from smaller giveaways to substantial wins. Scott wanted proof that the winners were real people rather than distant figures who disappeared after a closing date.
The discussion also covered the rituals people developed around entering: saving phone numbers, answering repeatedly, using online forms every day and deciding whether the cost of entry remained worthwhile.
The Easiest Quiz
The scoreboard was cleared for a new week, giving Monday’s contestant the first chance to establish a target.
As usual, Scott promised to defend the player against the quiz’s strict timing decisions, while warning that apparently obvious questions became much harder once the music began and millions of people were listening.
The Birthday Game: Steve chooses Duran Duran
Steve from Blyth in Nottinghamshire celebrated his 60th birthday in the Virgin Atlantic lounge at Heathrow before his first trip to New York. A birthday badge had helped him and his partner secure an upgrade, and the lounge had supplied a cake and champagne.
Their plans included seeing Nicole Scherzinger in Sunset Boulevard and taking a trip around the Hudson River. Steve shared his birthday with Ewan McGregor, Jack Antonoff and Christopher Walken.
He asked for 1980s pop. The first option was Ed Sheeran’s Eyes Closed, number one in 2023, which he rejected immediately.
The second was Duran Duran’s Is There Something I Should Know?, their first UK number one from 1983. Steve stopped there, saying it was exactly the era he had hoped for. Scott played the song while continuing to worry that the boarding announcement might call Steve away before the end of the feature.
31 March 2025: Vernon Kay
The handover reflected on the start of a new quiz week and Steve’s unusually comfortable journey to New York.
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