A special show from Liverpool
Scott and Chris were broadcasting from Liverpool before Scott’s evening appearance on the Strictly Come Dancing tour. Scott arrived with an idea he refused to explain until the city’s relevant authorities had agreed to it. Chris correctly suspected that everybody around him knew more than he did.
The clue was the Wheel of Liverpool, a large observation wheel whose glass pods were visible across the waterfront. Two years earlier, Chris had raised money for Comic Relief by repeatedly riding the glass lifts at BBC Broadcasting House in his pants. Scott proposed a public sequel: if listeners raised £50,000 during the programme, Chris would strip to his pants and ride the wheel.
Chris thought the target was too high and objected to performing in the cold before a live Liverpool audience. Scott pointed out that the stunt would only happen if listeners donated, giving Chris the unusual problem of wanting the appeal to succeed while hoping the total stayed below its target.
Wheel Pants becomes real
The appeal quickly became known as “Wheel Pants”. Students promised to wait beside the attraction, donations arrived in multiples and the operators confirmed that a pod was available. Chris considered doing push-ups before leaving the studio but had little time to prepare.
The running total continued climbing as Chris travelled to the wheel. Once the £50,000 target was passed, he removed his clothes inside the pod and began its slow circuit. The glass ceiling felt low, the cold created obvious worries and the visibility made him question why anybody wanted photographs. Scott remained in the studio, directing events and enjoying the increasingly surreal pictures.
The show ultimately raised more than £60,000 for Comic Relief in a single afternoon. Chris later admitted that he had tried dancing inside the pod after simply standing there became too strange, although his attempts to recreate The Inbetweeners and the Strictly crab routine offered little protection from the cold.
Why the money mattered
The stunt remained connected to Greg James’s reporting from Uganda. The money was supporting work at a health centre and wider efforts to improve healthcare, sanitation and access to mosquito nets across Africa.
Greg explained that malaria killed close to half a million African children under five each year and that a mosquito net costing about £2.50 could prevent infection. Scott repeatedly reminded listeners that the spectacle in Liverpool was deliberately silly, while the donations it produced could save lives.
By the end of the programme, Chris’s return to public near-nudity had raised an exceptional amount and given Liverpool a new tourist attraction for the afternoon. He remained unsure whether the charitable result outweighed the photographs, but could not dispute that the target had been comprehensively beaten.
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