The Chris Moyles Show
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Chris Moyles standing infront of the BBC Radio 1 Logo |
The Chris Moyles Show is the name of the
British BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show since
Chris Moyles took over on the 5th January
2004. It begins at 6.55am and ends at 10am. Moyles' short lived
1999 TV series on
UK Play was also of the same name.
Chris' show lasts just over three hours, with news and sport read half hourly between 07:00 and 08:30, and again at 09:30. A typical half hour segment will contain between ten to fifteen minutes of chat, discussing the team members' lives, Radio 1's features, music or popular culture. There are regular celebrity guests or interviews, with the occasional live music performance.
Car Park Catchphrase
Possibly the best known competition on the show has been
Car Park Catchphrase where two listeners, inside their car had to beep their horn to guess a catchphrase, which was hosted using voice samples from the
Ulster comedian,
Roy Walker. Even though simple catchphrases were used and carefully chosen obvious clues provided by Moyles, many callers failed to spot the correct phrase.In 2006 a new game called Beep Beep Busters was started, which was a spin off of
Bob Holness's
Blockbusters where callers are still in a car, but answer questions instead of guessing catchphrases. The competition took a break at Easter and has yet to return although Aled has confirmed it will be back.
Features
Popular recurring features that have appeared on the morning version of the Chris Moyles show include:
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BB Aled - When a series of
Big Brother or
Celebrity Big Brother is ongoing, Aled reviews everything that has been happening in the Big Brother house along with his pre-recorded interviews with the most recently evicted housemate.
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Buzz Off - Chris would bring a song from his home to play out on air while listeners texted in to decide if they wanted the song to stop early.
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Car Park Catch-Phrase - see above
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Celebrity Two Word Tango ("borrowed" from
Dick and Dom in da Bungalow)
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Chicks Win Ticks competition for women to win tickets to various things
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Guess Who - Ad hoc game in which team members attempt to guess the name of a celebrity that one member has recently seen, using yes or no questions
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One Road Travel (became known as New and Improved One Road Travel from January 2006) - Dominic originally read out travel news from one random road each day but since January 2006 the roads have been chosen by listeners.
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Reverse-A-Word - Later made into a one-off special by
Challenge TV*
Rob DJ's Monday Night Pub Quiz - One of Chris's friends Rob DJ presents a quiz he writes in a pub in their native
Leeds every Monday evening, with the team reconstructing the quiz the next morning along with listener participation.
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Sting Ring (became
Bing Ring for Christmas 2005) - Moyles would wake up a listener by playing Sting songs down the phone, in Christmas 2005, Bing Crosby songs would be used instead.
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Tedious Link - by Comedy Dave - A leftover from Moyles' old afternoon show, Comedy Dave would link one record played in the previous programme to another record using cleverly written facts to connect the names of the titles or artists. The record is played at precisely 9:00am, and afterwards the link between the records is reviewed for mistakes - which is usually found to be the case.
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Half-Time in the Show - following the tedious link, the team has a 'halftime'. Although nearly two thirds through the show, the title reflects the fact that the peak audience has now turned off and the team uses the opportunity to chat more informally to the remaining listners. Comedy Dave begins the link shouting "Let's get ready to Ramble!", in the style of
boxing announcer shouting "Let's get ready to Rumble!". In the UK, the word
ramble can be used to describe a long discussion with no real point or coherence.
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Whattity What A short-lived spoof of Blankety Blank
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Yesterday's Weather - Dominic would review where the warmest, wettest and as such happened in the UK the previous day.
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Beep Beep Busters (Replacement of Car Park Catch-Phrase) - see above
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Celebrity Tarzan - A celebrity would do an impression of
Tarzan and the listeners would phone in to guess who it is, the winners receive CD's of the number 1 record of the day or number 2 also and so on if it lasts as many days.
Team Members
Moyles' show is distinct in that it relies on a number of on air contributions from background staff in a variation of the "
zoo" format. Of these, Comedy Dave has worked with Chris the longest; though since 2004 he has also presented his own show along side
Mark "Chappers" Chapman. Chris went through a number of producers and Broadcast Assistants (BA's) during his period in Drivetime. Since he began on the breakfast show, 'the team' has consisted of the following members:
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Chris Moyles - Host of the show
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David Vitty (
Comedy Dave) - 'Director Of Comedy'; general assistant to Chris
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Rachel Jones -
Producer since 2003
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Aled Haydn-Jones (
BB Aled) - Day Producer and
Big Brother Reporter. He had previously worked as the BA
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Dominic Byrne -
Newsreader since the move to mornings. He also does regular celebrity interviews and has a 'One Road Travel' feature, in which the travel news of one randomly selected road is read, parodying the travel news of local radio shows
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Carrie Davies -
Sportsreader since 2004
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Juliette Ferrington - the original morning show's sportsreader, who left to solely work for
Radio Five Live*
Will Kinder (
Greyhead) - After producing the afternoon show, he left Radio 1 before returning as the Daytime Producer until 2005; he has now moved on to other work with Radio 1
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Rob DJ - Chris' friend from Leeds who is the author and presenter of Rob DJ`S Monday Night Pub Quiz in Chris`s Local Pub in Leeds.
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Longman - Chris' best friend and sandwich shop owner
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Roy Walker - Comedian and presenter of the Car Park Catchphrase feature
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Jocelin Stainer - Current BA and formerly assistant to Aled
Since taking over from
Sara Cox in January
2004 the show's audience has increased by over 1 million listeners, to over 7 million weekly listeners in October
2005, according to
RAJAR figures[
1]. Since the show began it has risen to become the most popular radio show for young people in
London, overtaking
Johnny Vaughan's
Capital Radio show, beating it by 3,000 listeners in October 2005.
It remains the second most popular show on
The BBC's Listen Again Service, behind
The Archers. It featured as the most downloaded
podcast in the UK
iTunes Music Store for much of
2005; however in December 2005 it was overtaken by the
Ricky Gervais Podcast.
In June
2005 Radio 1 signed an agreement with
Sirius Satellite Radio to broadcast much of their content in
America, with the Chris Moyles show as one of the main selling points (with a suitable time delay ensuring it remains a 'breakfast' show).
In 2005, as part of the BBC's podcasting trial, a weekly podcast entitled 'The Best of Moyles' is released. Originally updated every Thursday and now Friday as from January
2006, the podcast features highlights from the 5 previous broadcasts.
In 2006, the show won a gold
Sony Radio Award for the best entertainment show. Upon accepting the award, in typical Moyles fashion,Chris started his acceptance speech with "About f****ing time"
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The Breakfast Show Homepage*
The Unofficial Chris Moyles Fansite*
The official BBC Radio 1 homepage
