Greg James (radio show)

History

Features

Current

• Big Thursday Guest - A high-profile celebrity guest will come on the show on a Thursday.
• Film Reviews - Radio 1 Movie Critic Ali Plumb, and previously Rhiannna Dhillon, review the latest releases in the cinema every Thursday.
• Impossible Karaoke - Two callers go against each other with their renditions of difficult-to-sing songs.
• The Official Chart Update
• Rage Against the Answer Machine - People call a special phone number to rant about things that annoy them, which Greg and a guest then go through on a Wednesday. This feature has created a number of running gags, including "I can't do a survey if it's not in the right place, Simon". Messages are often started by saying, "Do you know what really my. This feature began in early 2013, and uses the song Killing In The Name by Rage Against the Machine. It used to be hosted every week by Greg and Chris Smith, but this changed to a rotation of DJs in mid-2015."
• Shouldn't Be News - Greg is joined by Chris Smith to go through well known facts that listeners have only recently learnt.
• The Ten Minute Takeover - This feature began on the afternoon show, usually happening daily at about 15:00, and moved to the drivetime show happening straight after Newsbeat at 18:00, Monday to Thursday. Listeners contact the show requesting a song, of which three are chosen, one each from the text, Facebook and Twitter. The following criteria have to be met in order for it to be played: it must not have been played on the show already that day, and it must be in the Radio 1 computer system. This second rule has created much controversy over the years, because songs are regularly not in the system, leading Greg to criticize the 'music police', who delete songs they consider to be too old for the station. The feature is a parody of the former 'Ten Hour Takeover' request feature that used to happen on Bank Holidays.
• What's My Age Again - Greg and Chris speak to three callers and ask them questions, with the objective of guessing their age. Whoever guesses the closest wins the round, and the winner is decided via the best of three. The theme tune is 'What's My Age Again' by Blink-182.
• Wrong 'Uns - Introduced in August 2015, a quiz in which a caller must answer a series of questions incorrectly. Broadcast every Tuesday at 17:10. Producer Ian Chaloner takes the role of 'quiz adjudicator' and gives a score at the end of the quiz, ensuring answers are not repeated or too irrelevant for the question context. Callers are encouraged to beat the previous week's score. This feature replaced Nerd Alerts.

  Recurring

• Rent-A-Greg - A feature where Greg runs random errands for listeners, including driving a listener to the airport at 2:00am and acting as a receptionist in a nail salon. This first aired during the summer of 2016, and returned for the summer of 2017.
• Accent or Faccent- This game involves three callers doing accents. Greg, Chris Smith or a guest must ask them three questions after which they must decide which caller is/are doing a real accent, and which are doing a fake accent. The theme tune is the theme tune to Keeping Up Appearances.
• Just What the Doctor Ordered - Chris Smith plays the part of a doctor, who needs certain things. Greg must remember as many as he can. This feature happened only a few times, on the afternoon and drivetime show.
• Lady Time - Ladies call up Greg and Chris to ask for advice about lady problems. Lady Time happens once a month, and the theme is "Lady Time, with Greg and Chris", sung over Jazz Talk by Doug Perkins. This has been done on many occasions with guests on the show, and on one occasion, whilst sitting in, Alice Levine hosted an edition of 'Lad Time'.
• The Mayor of Where - Long running feature that began in early 2014. Greg and Chris get a mayor on the phone, and ask them five questions in order to ascertain their 'mayorabouts' and guess what town they are the mayor of. This used to happen on a Thursday, but was moved to Wednesday to create time on Thursday's show for the fired Apprentice candidates, and was never returned to its original slot. When the mayor is Scottish, the feature is renamed "The Provost of Wovost", and when a mayor is unavailable, the feature is replaced with "The Claire of Where", "The Clown From Which Town" or in December 2016, "The Dame From The Town Of What Name" when Greg and Chris had to guess which town a pantomime dame was performing in.
• Talk 'Til The Cows Come Home - Two callers would compete to talk about a certain subject for as long as possible. Chris Smith With the Moos was the a-moo-dicator, who would sound a cow's moos when he believes they have run out of things to say. It is based loosely around Radio 4 comedy Just a Minute. It began in late 2014.
• The Tiny Big Thursday Guest Game - On occasions where a Big Thursday Guest could not be booked, Greg and Chris play this instead. Clips from guests who have been on the show are played out, but at a higher pitch, and a caller must guess who the guest was.
• North Star Caller - A variation of 'Star Caller' done at Christmas, where young children get phoned by Santa Claus.
• Tiny Celebrity Party - Chris Smith reads a story involving tiny celebrities, and Greg does their voices using a voice changer to make himself more high pitched. Tiny celebrities have included Tiny Gary Barlow, Tiny Hillary Devey, Tiny Fearne Cotton, Tiny Nick Grimshaw, and Tiny Kanye West.
• Tiny Kanye's Big Quiz- Tiny Kanye West spawned his own feature. He is the host of his Big Quiz, involving questions given to a caller from him and other Tiny Celebrities.

  Former

• Ask the Nation - This began on the afternoon show, and continued on the drivetime show until mid-2014, when it was replaced with Nerd Alerts. A listener would call up with a dilemma, to which they would put several options to the nation. Ten calls would then be taken, telling the listener which option to choose, or often creating solutions of their own. It used the theme music to Little Britain.
• The Blunder Log - The natural successor to 'Best Bit of the Radio'. It involved Greg playing out clips of mistakes from other radio stations or TV programmes. This feature began on the drivetime show, and happened sporadically. It hasn't featured since early 2013.
• Feet Up Friday - This began on the afternoon show. Two teams of listeners would come in and play games, including 'The Yes/No Game' and 'The Square' to win Feet Up Friday. When Greg moved to drivetime, the feature was reinvented so that the two teams make music choices to be played between 17:15 and 17:45, the winning team, that got to play their choices, was chosen by listener vote. This feature ended when The Official Chart occupied the Friday show.
• Flash Flash - At the beginning of the Early Breakfast show, Greg would play the piece "In the Mood" by Glenn Miller, whilst singing "flash flash" to the tune and encouraging listeners to flash any lights they had available in time with the music.
• The Going Home Song - A song sung every day at 16:10 between June 2012 and December 2017, with three people who are going home singing to the tune of Nut Rocker by B. Bumble and the Stingers. It is often themed, for people with specific characteristics. The feature has created some controversy on Rage Against the Answer Machine, with some saying 16:10 is too early for people to be going home, to which Greg responds that they cannot do lots of different Going Home Songs throughout the whole show. In May 2016, singer Craig David recorded his own version of the Going Home Song. It ran fromm
• Greg's Best Bit of the Radio From Yesterday - A daily feature on the early breakfast and afternoon shows. Greg played out a clip from another radio station that he finds amusing, usually of slip ups. On Monday, this would be Greg's Best Bit of the Radio from Friday.
• Nerd Alerts - This feature began in 2014, and happens on a Tuesday. People email in to report inaccuracies spotted on TV and Radio, and Greg and Chris go through them and point them out, or at times proving the nerds to wrong. When this happens, Greg will sing the "Up Yours" song. The correspondence often causes passionate discussion amongst the nerds, with each trying to prove the last wrong. Greg has often stated that it is not a nerd hunt, but a celebration of nerds and pedantry. The theme tune is the theme from Star Wars, with Greg and/or Chris singing "Nerd Alerts" over the top. It was quietly dropped in late 2015.
• Pun Pong - Greg and a caller compete to come up with the most puns on a given topic. The topic is revealed, after which they have the duration of one song to come up with the puns and must deliver them in a quickfire alternating style. Producer Ian is known as the "Iandependent adjudicator" with the occasions where he is absent filled by assistant producer Jenny. The loser is the first person to run out of puns. The theme tune is the Take Me Out theme. This replaced Star Caller on Mondays.
• Secret Teacher - This feature ran from September 2012 to early 2013 on Wednesdays. Greg would hear weekly from an anonymous 'secret teacher', in her first term as a newly qualified teacher at a secondary school. She wrote a diary, detailing her embarrassing situations, and often criticized her rival 'Miss Perfect'. The feature ended after people from her school began to discover her identity.
• Star Caller - The feature began on the afternoon show, and took place on Monday. A celebrity phones up someone, who has the opportunity to chat to them and ask a question. It was decided in 2015 that people being called were no longer allowed to ask for a follow on Twitter, after people complaining about it on Rage Against the Answer Machine.
• The Summer Mix - An hour of upbeat, uninterrupted music mixed together from 6pm until 7pm every day. Broadcast throughout the summer holiday period of 2015, it replaced any other features usually taking place in that slot. It returned in the summer of 2016 but in a modified format, so that it was only half an hour and ran from 15:45-16:15, thus only occupying fifteen minutes of Greg's show.

  One Off

• Count the Cocks - An audio montage was played out containing clips of cockerels. Greg and Chris had to count them up, with the person with the least accurate answer having to present with a live cockerel called Penny on their head, as can be seen in this . The theme tune was the words, "all you have to do is count the cocks / count the little cocks", to the tune of 'Old Macdonald Had a Farm'.
• Don't Put All Your Gregs In One Basket - This feature involved Chris Smith reading the entertainment news from a cardboard box as a forfeit, and the theme tune was the James Bond theme. It can be heard on 31 January 2014 podcast.
• How's Your Father - Greg gets people on the phone and asks them how their father is. The theme tune is the Thomas the Tank Engine theme.
• John Romero Thursdays - Since 5 May 2016 the Going Home song has been a special recording of accordion player and Britain's Got Talent contestant, John Romero, who played Nut Rocker for his audition on his show. It has become tradition that on Thursdays listeners will text the studio to remind Greg that they don't need participants for Friday's Going Home Song as there is no Going Home Song on a Friday, and he kept incorrectly informing them this was the case by mistake.

  Parody videos

Awards and nominations