Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Chris finds out how you can get into the spirit of Roald Dahl on his 100th birthday. Dr Anya Chapman opens our eyes to the peerless world of seaside piers.

Chris finds out how you can get into the spirit of Roald Dahl with events all over the country on what would have been his 100th birthday. As much of Britain swelters in the sun Dr Anya Chapman opens our eyes to the peerless world of seaside piers. We react to the BBC saying goodbye to Bake Off and Vassos speaks to former Olympic swimming champion Duncan Goodhew to discuss getting more kids active and into the pool. Comedian and writer Paul Kerensa provides the daily Pause for Thought.

2 hours, 59 minutes

Last on

Tue 13 Sep 201606:30
BBC Radio 2

More episodes

Previous

Jools Holland

Next

Richard Osman and Chris Boardman

See all episodes from The Chris Evans Breakfast Show

Clips

See all clips from 13/09/2016(3)

Music Played

  • Muse

    Starlight

    • (CD Single).
    • Warner Bros.

  • Passenger

    Anywhere

    • Young As The Morning Old As The Sea.
    • Cooking Vinyl.
    • 001.

  • Four Tops

    Loco In Acapulco

    • Their Greatest Hits.
    • Telstar.

  • Billy Joel

    Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)

    • The Stranger.
    • Columbia.
    • 1.

  • Jess Glynne

    Ain't Got Far To Go

    • I Cry When I Laugh.
    • Atlantic.
    • 005.

  • The Banana Splits

    The Tra La La Song (One Banana, Two Banana)

    • Television's Greatest Hits Vol. 5: In Living Color (Various Artists).
    • TVT Records.

  • The Bellamy Brothers

    Let Your Love Flow

    • Country Moods (Various Artists).
    • Polygram Tv.

  • Ward Thomas

    Guilty Flowers

    • (CD Single).
    • Sony Music.
    • 1.

  • The Communards

    Don't Leave Me This Way (feat. Sarah Jane Morris)

    • Now 1986 (Various Artists).
    • Now.

  • Jimmy Radcliffe

    Long After Tonight Is All Over

    • The Best Northern Soul All-Nighter (V.
    • Virgin.

  • Jodie Abacus

    I'll Be That Friend

    • I'll Be That Friend.
    • Ministry Of Sound.
    • 1.

  • Happy Mondays

    Step On

    • Now 17, Part 1 (Various Artists).
    • Now.

  • Travis

    Magnificent Time

    • (CD Single).
    • Red Telephone Box.
    • 001.

  • Lenny Kravitz

    California

    • Lenny Kravitz - Baptism.
    • Parlophone.

  • Dean Martin & Helen O’Connell

    How D'Ya Like Your Eggs In The Morning?

    • Cool Couples (Various Artists).
    • Sanctuary.

  • Coldplay

    A Head Full Of Dreams

    • (CD Single).
    • Parlophone.

  • Sammy Davis Jr.

    The Candy Man

    • Hits Of 1971 & 1972 (Various Artists).
    • Polydor.

  • Madness

    Our House (Radio 2 Live in Hyde Park 2016)

  • 10cc

    I'm Not In Love

    • Now 100 Hits 70s (Various Artists).
    • Now.
    • 1.

  • Marvin Gaye

    Got To Give It Up

    • Marvin Gaye - The Love Songs.
    • Universal Music Tv.

  • Queen

    Seven Seas Of Rhye

    • Parlophone.

  • Sigma

    Cry (feat. Take That)

    • (CD Single).
    • 3Beat.
    • 001.

  • Joe Jackson

    Steppin' Out

    • Now 1983 - The Millennium Series.
    • EMI.

  • The Rolling Stones

    Get Off Of My Cloud

    • The Rolling Stones - Forty Licks.
    • Abkco.

  • Barry Gibb

    In The Now

    • (CD Single).
    • RCA.

  • Tom Odell

    Grow Old With Me

    • Long Way Down.
    • Columbia.
    • 1.

  • B.A. Robertson

    To Be Or Not To Be

    • 25 Years Of Rock'n'Roll: 1980 (Va).
    • Connoisseur Collection.
    • 4.

Pause for Thought

Paul Kerensa

Writer and Comedian

Is this a Pause For Thought I see before me? Why yes. Exactly 20 years ago today, I had a life-changing audition for the school play, The Scottish Play… Trainspotting. Alright it was the other one, beginning in Mac and ending in Beth, if you’re superstitious. But forget the play; the friends I made in that production were who I “enfold and hold to my heart”. Because the final curtain fell, and “When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning or in…” …the Hogshead pub the next day, and EVERY week ever since, over the last 20 years.

And not just three, but a dozen or more of us – like TV’s Friends, except twice as many and we’ve lasted twice as long. And like the sitcom, some of us paired off, some met “outsiders”. We’ve had break-ups, bereavements, birthdays and births, baptisms and weddings – and it all started with that school play.

Only last week, we had the wedding of Witch 2. Witch 3 played the organ; Witch 1 was Maid of Honour, and Lady Macbeth should have been bridesmaid but gave birth that morning. The wedding reading was Ecclesiastes: “Two are better than one… If either falls down, one can help the other up… Two can defend themselves… A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” Very true, and a cord of about 12 strands isn’t quickly broken either.

From A levels to now, none of us knew what lay ahead. I played Banquo, asking Macbeth’s witches: “If you can look into the seeds of time, And say which grain will grow and which will not, Speak then to me.” But in the Bible Ecclesiastes says: “Sow your seed in the morning – you don’t know which will succeed, whether this or that. You can’t understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.”

Whatever’s ahead in the next twenty years, or even “tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow”, I’m thankful for my pals’ support. And to anyone with a chance to join a school play, you may make great friends, who as Shakespeare probably wrote, “will be there for you, when the rain starteth to pour, like I’ve been there before, cos you art there for me too-ooo.”

Broadcast

  • Tue 13 Sep 201606:30
    BBC Radio 2

Farewell Chris Evans: The best bits from his last shows at Radio 2

Farewell Chris Evans: The best bits from his last shows at Radio 2

After eight years of hosting the Breakfast Show, Chris Evans leaves Radio 2.

500 Words

500 Words

BBC Radio 2's story-writing competition for kids.