Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Chris Evans presents a fully interactive show for all the family, featuring music, special guests and listeners on the phone.

2 hours, 59 minutes

Last on

Tue 21 Apr 2015 06:30

Music Played

  • Michael Jackson

    Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin'

    • The Essential Michael Jackson.
    • Epic.
    • 7.
  • Brooke Fraser

    Kings & Queens

    • (CD Single).
    • Vagrant Records.
    • 001.
  • Peggy Lee

    Fever

    • Mad About The Boy: Ladies Sing The Bl.
    • Crimson.
  • Manu Dibango

    Soul Makossa

    • Manu Dibango.
    • Nascente.
    • 15.
  • Bad Company

    Feel Like Makin' Love

    • (Single).
    • Island.
    • 3.
  • Yazoo

    Situation

    • Alison Moyet Singles.
    • Columbia.
  • 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.
  • Blur

    Parklife

    • (CD Single).
    • Parlophone.
  • Markus Feehily

    Love Is A Drug

    • (CD Single).
    • Sony Music.
    • 001.
  • The Cure

    The Love Cats

    • The Cure - Staring At The Sea.
    • Fiction.
  • Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott

    D.I.Y.

    • What Have We Become.
    • Virgin EMI.
    • 001.
  • Jimmy Jones

    Good Timin'

    • 60's Number Ones Vol 1.
    • Old Gold.
  • The Belle Stars

    The Clapping Song

    • The Very Best Of The Belle Stars.
    • Hit Label.
  • XTC

    Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)

    • XTC - Compact XTC:The Singles 1978-85.
    • Virgin.
  • Stacey Solomon

    Shy

    • (CD Single).
    • Conehead.
    • 001.
  • Dean Martin & Helen O’Connell

    How D'Ya Like Your Eggs In The Morning?

    • Cool Couples (Various Artists).
    • Sanctuary.
  • Madonna

    Ghost Town

    • Rebel Heart.
    • Interscope.
  • Bee Gees

    You Win Again

    • Bee Gees - Their Greatest Hits.
    • Polydor.
  • Curtis Mayfield

    Move On Up

    • The Old Skool Reunion (Various Artis.
    • Global Television.
  • Creedence Clearwater Revival

    Up Around The Bend

    • Creedence Clearwater Revival - Chroni.
    • Fantasy.
    • 24.
  • Electric Light Orchestra

    Livin' Thing

    • Light Years - The Very Best Of ELO.
    • Epic.
  • Ella Fitzgerald

    Manhattan

  • LunchMoney Lewis

    Bills

    • (CD Single).
    • Columbia.
    • 001.
  • Monty Python

    Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life

    • (CD Single).
    • Virgin.
  • The Foundations

    Build Me Up Buttercup

    • Million Sellers Vol.12 - The Sixties.
    • Disky.
  • Diana Ross

    Chain Reaction

    • Now That's What I Call Music '86.
    • Now.
  • Josh Groban

    What I Did For Love

    • (CD Single).
    • Warner Bros.
  • Mink DeVille

    Spanish Stroll

    • The Greatest Hits Of 1977 (Various).
    • Premier.
  • Coldplay

    In My Place

    • (CD Single).
    • Parlophone.

Pause For Thought

Pause For Thought

From comedian and writer Paul Kerensa:

I’ve an unusual gig tomorrow night: a comedy set at the Science Technology Engineering and Maths Festival, in the Silicon Valley of Britain: Crawley. I’ve always been a geek for that stuff. I set up my school’s Maths Club – we had a hundred members. But that’s binary, so when I say a hundred, I mean 4.

As a comedian addressing engineers and scientists, it got me thinking: jokes are like equations. Both are balancing acts: just as 1+2=3, we also know that if you cross a sheep and a kangaroo you get... a woolly jumper. This thing plus that thing equals the sum total of the parts – so many jokes boil down to that little bit of maths. What cheese do you use to lure a bear out of a cave? Camembert! Cheese plus bears equals camembert. Hurrah! Balance is achieved, people laugh with satisfaction.

For other types of comedy too, there’s an equation-like balance: This looks like That. Morecombe & Wise making breakfast looked like a striptease. Baldrick’s coffee looked like mud – well it was mud. And for The Two Ronnies, four candles equals ‘andles for forks.

Whether in physics or physical comedy, or our own lives: balance works. You take out what you put in. You put in energy, it moves you forward. You radiate positivity, it’s reflected back to you.

And for me, the more I see rules, laws and equations defining the universe, the more I see someone putting it in place. The code of life needs a coder. The laws of the universe, to my mind, indicate a lawmaker.

Others see it differently of course. I’ve read A Brief History of Time, and I’ve read the Bible – well in both cases I struggled with the heavy bits. But my bookshelf is balanced too, physics and theology. I think that in this universe, balance makes sense. You give love, you get love. You seek forgiveness? Then forgive others. The more you give out, the more you get back. And maybe, life +love+laughter=happiness, in which case pass the fork ‘andles.

Ìý

Broadcast

  • Tue 21 Apr 2015 06:30

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

³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Radio 2's story-writing competition for kids.