Difference between revisions of "The Saturday Show"

Latest revision as of 17:54, 13 September 2015

The Saturday Show was a show broadcast on BBC Radio 1 and presented by Chris Moyles with Comedy Dave from April 1998 to September 2001.

Overview

The show ran for over three and a half years, and was often performed under a haze of booze from the night before. It was also the show on which Moyles and Dave first worked with producer Rachel Jones, who later went on to produce the breakfast show.

On 25 April 1998, Chris was promoted from his previous 6-9am Saturday slot, as Radio One revamped their weekend schedules. He was given the new 10am-1pm show, produced by Richard Murdoch (known as 'Count Drunkula' due to his red-stained teeth from drinking wine the previous evening) - and less than ably assisted by "Baldie" Greg Young.

The show also often contained slightly bizarre competitions, the most famous probably being Hello, I'm Listening. This involved Chris phoning up someone, who would then have to answer with the phrase "Hello, I'm Listening". There would also be variations of this, with different phrases. Sometimes callers would be from the personal phone books of the team, or from emails into the show.

Features

• Girls Going To Football - Chris used to invite women who were attending a football game that day to phone in and predict the day's football scores. Dave would then predict them with far greater accuracy himself, in a psychic manner. There were several comedy alternatives to the title suggested, such as "Dames Going To Games" and "Bitches at the Pitches". The tagline was "You have to be a proper fan, but not a man!".

• Boys Going Shopping - During the summer, when the football season was over, Moyles and Dave would sometimes use this feature to replace Girls Going To Football. It usually involved desperate men phoning up in search of excuses to get out of going shopping with the missus.

• Gargling - A competition where callers would have to ring up and pick a member of the team to gargle a song for them. If by some miracle they guessed it correctly, they would win a prize. Sometimes celebrity guests would gargle (badly), although Baldie Greg was always the worst by far.

• Who’s In The Doghouse - Sung to the tune of the hit song Who Let The Dogs Out? by the Baha Men, this involved blokes ringing in to explain why they were in the doghouse. It usually involved too much alcohol the previous night.

• Midday Chocolate Money - A tribute to This Morning presenters Richard and Judy's Midday Money feature, but instead of winning £500 for each correct question, the caller would win a chocolate coin. Chris and Dave used to play this game at exactly midday, with a series of straightforward questions.

• Fingernail Riverdance - A feature that involved lots of synchronised finger tapping, in time to the Lord Of The Dance music. Strange but funny.

• May Divorce Be With You - As Saturdays are traditionally wedding days, people getting married on the Saturday would contact the show, and Chris and Dave used to make joking predictions on how long their marriage would last. Ironically, Dave has since been divorced twice.

• Dave’s Introductory Service - Not a feature strictly done on Saturdays, but still a favourite if there was a link to kill. Comedy Dave would show off his musical knowledge by identifying songs from their introduction, whilst playing against a caller or fellow team member.

Every week after 12 o'clock, the lads would also be joined by celebrity guests, often ranging from the ridiculous to the sublime. Singer Sisqo and TV host Jerry Springer were particular favourites, although a long list - including Natalie Imbruglia, Dannii Minogue, Atomic Kitten and Kenickie - didn’t go down quite so well.

Memorable Moments

In February 2000, boy band '911' announced their split live on the show, and another memorable moment was the day Chris and Dave had to stay on until 3pm for a five hour marathon shift, in the absence of Emma B.

The funniest ever moment on the Saturday Show is widely thought to be the time Comedy Dave sang an off-the-cuff song all about cheese in June 2001, including the classic line "Just take a look at my cheese!".

End of the Show

In August 2001, Radio One announced a major change to its weekend line up. According to a press release, Chris was "giving up" his weekend slot to make way for a new show by Jamie Theakston. A spokesman said "It's because he now has five hours extra each week in the afternoons. It has always been the plan to move him from Saturdays". Either way, Moyles didn’t sound too chuffed. The Sun's showbiz editor Dominic Mohan said that Radio One bosses were 'mad', as Saturday was Chris' best show.

The final edition of the Saturday Show was aired on Saturday 15 September 2001. Former Coronation Street actor turned singer Adam Rickitt and television personality Dale Winton both made guest appearances on the last show. Before the final Saturday Show began, Moyles made a short statement advising listeners that the show would have the usual fun and laughter, despite the September 11 terror attacks in the USA a few days earlier. He respectfully advised anyone who would not be in the mood for a laugh to not listen to the show.

Other weekend shows

Chris has since presented one-off weekend shows for Radio One, including shows live from Cardiff in 2003, Londonderry in 2004 and Newquay in 2006. He also broadcast on a Sunday for Radio One's 40th anniversary celebrations in 2007.

Archive

A few of the Saturday shows are available to download from the archive. Please note these are mostly incomplete and all music has been edited out.

• Saturday 19 February 2000
• Saturday 9 December 2000
• Saturday 23 December 2000
• Saturday 14 April 2001
• Saturday 15 September 2001