Best Bits from Radio 1's Giant DJ Hunt - From falling in love with a printer to falling off air

What started as a giant wild goose chase turned into quite possibly one of the most unexpected moments in Radio 1’s history.

With Greg James unable to find all 30 Radio 1 DJs in his 100 hour deadline, the station was switched off for 5 minutes. Everyone at the station lost their minds. Greg screamed, but nobody was able to hear it.

But before the great switch off, we had 5 days of ludicrous, rollercoaster fun, with Greg’s listeners helping to find DJs in places as far-flung as an Ibiza bar, a Northern Ireland crisp factory and a gig in Amsterdam.

Here are the best moments of Radio 1’s Giant DJ Hunt. Catch up on the highlights via BBC Sounds, with day-by-day recaps all in one handy place.

To relive every moment, you can revisit our live updates from the five days on our Giant DJ Hunt live blog.

The week started with all Radio 1 DJs given instructions to arrive at a studio by 8am on Monday morning, where they’d receive further instructions.

But only one presenter showed up - Greg James - because every other DJ was in on the real plot.

Greg started his Breakfast Show and soon realised nobody else was coming in. He made phone calls to his fellow DJs, which all went straight to voicemail.

This was a stitch up, and Greg was the butt of the joke. Once he’d recovered from the embarrassment, he was given his official order: He was in charge of Radio 1 now, and he was fully responsible for finding his fellow DJs.

Our first DJ to be found, Charlie Hedges, was located at a crisp factory in Northern Ireland, which also happened to be a castle.

While Greg was trying to uncover clues on his tod, Charlie was tasting different flavours of crisps and generally having an exceptional time.

On how the rest of her week progressed, Charlie said: “You could tell where I’d been because I left a trail of crisps.”

She wasn’t the only presenter to make the most of the game: Daniel P Carter, Alyx Holcombe and Nels Hylton were allowed to feed meerkats at a zoo in Southend; Sian Eleri and Sarah Story raced on boats to the Isle of Wight; and it took so long to find Arielle Free at M&D’s theme park in Motherwell that she managed to go on loads of the rides!

On day 2, Greg personally ventured to a nearby Ann Summers shop to find fellow Radio 1 DJ Vick Hope.

Vick posted a few clues to her Instagram, where she considered which outfit to wear for her next appearance on a breakfast TV show (a knowing nod to anyone who had something to say about her appearance on Morning Live earlier this year…)

Once Greg worked out her whereabouts, he rang up the shop manager, and told her to keep an eye on Vick while he sprinted the 5 minute journey from Radio 1’s studio to Oxford Street. Ann Summers was on lockdown.

On the morning of Day 3, Greg received a phone call from a mystery caller.

A voice, which turned out to be Radio 2’s Fearne Cotton, revealed that two more DJs had been found.

Fearne had spotted Rickie Haywood-Williams and Melvin Odoom at a Coldplay gig in Amsterdam, and not only that, but they were cycling on bikes that were generating the electricity to power the concert! Just doing their bit for the planet, and getting to see one of the world’s biggest bands in the process.

Meanwhile, we heard a huge announcement that BTS’ Jung Kook would be performing a Radio 1 Live Lounge the next day. Would Rickie and Melvin be able to get back to the UK in time for the recording?

They were challenged to make it back without flying, and by only taking any mode of public transport once. After a train, a tram, a two-person bike, a ferry, a cab, and a bus, they rocked up at Radio 1 just in the nick of time to welcome the BTS star.

The true hero throughout this process has been the printer in Radio 1’s studio, which was Greg’s only company at the start of the challenge, earning himself the nickname Harold.

Every morning, Greg would receive a new message from his printer, giving him instructions.

Harold was equal parts sinister, flirty (asking Danny Howard if he was single, at one point) and technically frustrating (there was no paper tray, so Greg had to pick all his messages up from the floor).

If was Harold that first broke the news of Greg’s ominous deadline, informing him that he had 100 hours to complete his challenge, or the plug would be pulled on Radio 1.

What happens to Harold now this is all over? He deserves a break.

Jack Saunders is probably the Radio 1 DJ that is easiest to spot, with his trademark bright red hair. Even better, his hiding place was the top deck of an open-top sightseeing bus - so this one should have been simple, right? Wrong.

The City Sightseeing Instagram accounts for London, Edinburgh, Oxford and Bournemouth all posted the same clue from local tour buses, of the back of a man’s head with bright red hair, with the question: “Is this who you’re looking for?”

So the real Jack was travelling around on one of these buses, with Jack Saunders lookalikes on the other three - yes, really.

Listeners Meghan and Ashley checked out the buses in Oxford and Edinburgh, only to find Jack’s sneaky doppelgangers, but after a hot pursuit through Bournemouth, listener Hannah finally caught up with him.

Whoever was grabbing a quick sausage roll snack from the Greggs in Paddington, London on day 4 would have been treated to a musical cocktail of drum and bass, rap and dance from Charlie Tee, Kenny Allstar and Jeremiah Asiamah who were DJing there. As Jack Saunders put it "the sausage rolls were probably vibrating from all the drum and bass Charlie has been playing".

Charlie teased Greg with a photo of three sausage roll before Kenny uploaded a story showing him and Jeremiah having a dance party in Greggs. It didn't take long after that to track them down, thanks to listener (and potential next James Bond) Will who used his best investigating skills to locate the exact location the trio was hiding. Luckily, listener Ollie was in the area, so he caught Charlie, Kenny and Jeremiah in the Paddington Greggs.

After being found, Kenny said "I never thought I'd ever play Jack Harlow, Dave and Stormzy in Greggs" - I don't think anyone else expected it either, Kenny.

Jordan succeeded in driving our poor Radio 1 DJs crazy by posting pictures every single day from a pub. Thanks for the clues Jordan, but there are quite a lot of pubs out there, you know?

Greg and the team were on the verge of getting everyone to check out their locals and report back, but a canny listener worked out that there was a tap at the pub selling beer that you can no longer get in the UK…

On Thursday, Vick Hope finally had a breakthrough. With the help of the listeners, they worked out that he was at Biddy Mulligans in Cala de Mijas in Spain, so he was on holiday the whole time! They called up the pub only to find that he’d headed off to the beach - it’s alright for some isn’t it?

On Friday morning, agonisingly close to the midday deadline, Greg finally had a lead - Jordan tweeted that he fancied a fry up, which led listeners Katie and “Fuller” to his location in Marbella. They screamed “ARE YOU A RADIO 1 DJ?” faster than he could tuck into his plate of eggs.

“Mollie’s done a dump!”’ - Greg James

The mystery of Mollie’s whereabouts reached fever pitch on day 5. It all started with a dump. A photo dump on Instagram, that is. Amongst some lovely pictures of Mollie, there were some nautical clues of boats and the sea.

Theories flew around about her location from Liverpool, to Portsmouth, to Weymouth. All false leads.

Mollie’s last clue was of a flare, according to listeners. Then Charlie Hedges saw orange smoke across the sea from Radio 1’s Isle of Wight studio. Matt Edmondson’s first thought? “GET IN THE SEA, GREG!”. But Mollie was quite far away - there clearly wasn’t time before the deadline.

After getting hold of a boat at the harbour, Greg was raring to go. But alas he forgot about health and safety.

What followed was an extremely chaotic few minutes of radio; complete and utter panic from Greg (and basically everyone listening live).

And then, silence. Radio 1 actually went off air. Radio 1’s Wikipedia page was even edited to say it “used to be” a radio station.

But alas, Greg’s boat finally reached Mollie and five minutes later everyone’s favourite radio station was BACK.