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It`s time to forgive Ant & Dec (From Watford Observer)
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It`s time to forgive Ant & Dec
4:58pm Saturday 3rd October 2009
By Michael Duffy »
We publicans & restaurateurs have for want of a better phrase a wind down zone.It`s usually gone midnight when I lock up and I`m just not ready for bed, well who else finishes work and goes straight to bed ?
Now one of lifes little pleasures was tuning into BBC Three Counties Radio for the Nick Risby Show and in particular the “Guess the link” competition that runs from about 10 past midnight onwards.
Nick would play 3 records and we listeners would have to work out what linked all three.
As an example “Here comes the Sun” followed by “ Life on Mars” and then to finish “ Moon River” and the link is planets, except it`s never that easy and often the clue is in the singer as well .
Say for example we replace “Life on Mars” with “The Jean Genie” , same singer but this time the link is that David Bowie recorded the song as Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders from Mars….still there ?
The first record would be played then listeners would call in if they thought that they could guess the link, then the second record would be played and so on until one of the callers got it right and was rewarded with a BBC Three Counties Radio Pen and a photo of “Naughty Nick” the DJ
I am the proud owner of 2 of these pens and 2 photos, let me tell you these are so rare you can`t even find them on ebay
The whole competition would take at least half an hour and Nick would have a few words with each caller, most of who he seemed to recognise and treated as long lost friends.
After a wee chat the caller would give their answer and if it was wrong, but the one you were thinking of, it saved you a phone call but it also gave you time to come up with other answers.
And then those cheerful Geordie lads spoiled it for everybody with their phone in voting scandal and as a result the BBC banned all radio phone in competitions with prizes.
The “Guess the link” competition disappeared for a while then resurfaced with the same format ie what links all 3 songs ? but now there`s no plastic pen and unsigned photo for the winner, no phoning in for a cosy chat with Naughty Nick, instead he plays a record and listeners call in and leave an answer or text it in and he simply reads out the answers and it`s all over within 10 minutes.
To be fair he does spin it out a bit longer as listeners are then invited to call in with suggestions for songs based on the correct answer , but it`s just not the same as the thrill of competing for the pen and photo against allcomers from Beds, Herts & Bucks.
So now that Ant and Dec have served their time and paid their penance do you think I could have my competition back ?
