Annabel has a big ‘Ask The Nation’
27:07 Share

BBC Radio 1 Radio 1's All Day Breakfast with Greg James Hello everyone and welcome to Thursday's Radio 1 All Day Breakfast podcast. This is Greg James. What a lovely morning we've had. Lovely sunny morning.

Yeah, to start off with on today's breakfast show, we were quite distracted by the nice weather. We're giddy today. All right, okay. I think we need the blinds down in our meeting in the morning because we know we've been going on about it being light finally. Yeah. We look out across London, the sun was shining, we're just getting distracted by stuff.

We were trying to get the show planned and then producer Amy just went, oh my God, look, it's a cloud that looks like a plane. And then we all went, oh, wow. And we all got distracted for about five minutes. Oh, wow, that's amazing. And I was like, oh, there's a lot of planes today, aren't there? And I said, have you ever played that game where you look at a plane and you go, guess where that's going? And then you'd get on...

Flight Radar. Yeah, the app. Have we done that game? Yeah, we've done that game. So we're doing that game for about 10 minutes. Good. And then we decided to do a chair race around Radio 2. Okay. So that's been this morning's meeting. Good. So I think the show's sort of there. Strong. But you know, sometimes it's more useful sometimes just to make sure we're all feeling fun. I think so. And we do feel fun.

and someone's just texting saying wow i saw that plane cloud in norfolk this is relatable content but we were bloody up for it let me let me tell you that let me tell you that for nothing

So today, Ask the Nation, really fun. All the latest things. Good quiz from Gemma. That's coming up. We did a great Ask the Nation with Annabelle. Yeah, the Annabelle one was good. In fact, you know what? Let's go straight into that because I loved hearing from her today. Ask the Nation. Annabelle, would you like to remind everybody if they've just switched on what we're asking today on Ask the Nation?

So when you get on a bus or a train when it's really busy and you sit on the aisle seat next to someone and then as the journey goes on, it empties, do you move seats to give them more space? It's a massive overthink because the reason you've posed this to the nation is because you would sit there because you don't want to hurt their feelings. Yeah.

So let's crack on with some voice notes. And Evie, what are you saying? Guys, if I was on a train and there was a free seat and it was really busy, I'd still stand up because I just hate sitting next to a random stranger. And also I feel bad sitting next to them because...

I hate when people sit next to me. Yeah, so Evie thinks that the other person's hating it as well. We're all having a horrible time in life, aren't we? We're all just hating it. Emma says, I do exactly the same. I overthink the move. Although, I wonder if this rings true, Annabelle. Emma also says, I worry that if I was to move, then more people join the bus and I end up with a new person sat next to me. They could be worse. They could be more weird than the person I'm sitting next to.

It's a gamble. That was exactly my thought. I was thinking it's very risky because if you move, then you might have someone else. So yeah, I think the exact same. Yeah, do you stick or twist? The devil you know. You should say that to them. This should be part of the reasoning. You go, just to let you know, I'm going to remain sitting next to you because as they say, better the devil you know. And then see how that goes.

Chris, the young window cleaner, says, only one thing to do, Annabelle, get off the bus and walk the last few miles alone. Yeah, I'm surprised I haven't done that yet, to be honest, with how much I overthink it. More voice notes. Absolutely. You will upset them. You will ruin their day.

if you move away. No, you won't. Please, you really won't ruin their day. You won't think, oh, what have I done? Do I smell? I don't think that's the situation here. I get it. If you're sat on a two-seater, you can't really move if you're next to the window. So the person on the aisle seat should really be moving. I think it's weirder, though, if you're sat at a four-seat table because you don't want to then look like those weird couples that sit on the same side of the table to eat their lunch. LAUGHTER

I also... I do panic if there's a three that clearly know each other on the table of four and you go, oh, do I sit down because they're just going to try and involve me or they're going to think I'm weird or...

So I think I'm guilty of the overthink as well, Annabelle, is what I'm saying. So you shouldn't feel alone in that. I'm glad. Chloe, good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Ask the Nation. What would you like to add? What grenade would you like to roll into this discussion?

So you would like someone to just sit next to you and just sit it out the whole journey? You've got an empty carriage all the way to Inverness. You're sitting next to someone for that whole journey.

Come on. So you're going to chat to them as well? Because this is different. This is different. So actually, let's add Jenny into the mix here. But then are you striking up a proper conversation? Because I don't mind that. I don't mind having a proper chat. If you're getting on, that's quite nice. Would you do that, Chloe?

Maybe, yeah. I mean, like, if they're not headphones in, like, working away, yeah. If it's busy, then it's quiet. There's something to discuss. Be like, oh, look, everyone got off. I mean, that's an awful conversation. But if they're... Hang on. But if they're sitting there doing some work, headphones on, don't... Oh, no, I'm not then. I'm not then. But don't sit next to them the whole journey. They don't mind. Move away. Give them some space. They've got a bag to put on the seat or they've got some food to arrange or something. They don't need you sitting there. They don't need a minder. There's... You know, if you move away...

I mean, I would be thinking, like, what, you know, have I, like, infringed on their space? Do they feel really claustrophobic with me next to them? I'd be panicking. It's so good how much we overthink everything. Some more here. I am in agreement because I would also think that by my moving away...

they would then think that they didn't have the correct public transport etiquette. This is incredible. Annabelle, you've unearthed something amazing here. I'm really surprised. I am surprised as well. So...

Maybe Jenny was onto something with the conversation. It doesn't feel classically British, but we can, as a reminder, communicate to each other as humans. So, guys, as primary school teachers might say, let's use our words, OK? Let's use our words here. Let's use our inside voices, OK? Um...

Just say, perhaps you might say to them, would you mind moving away? I'd like some more space. It's nothing to do with you smelling or anything like that. I think there's a conversation to be had. Would you do that, Annabelle? I can give it a go, yeah. I'll probably do it with heart palpitations and sweating at the same time. If I have to, then I will do it. But let me tell you this. You've just spoken to millions of people on the radio and you were great at it and it was fine. So don't worry about one person. Don't worry about one smelly old man on a train.

That's true. Maybe I'll just play this recording to them on the bus next time. Say, I was on the radio. I called up a radio station about this exact scenario. I think that will go down really well. Annabelle, thank you. Have a good day. Thank you. So much anxiety.

If you've got an Ask the Nation for me, you can send it my way if you want. greg.james at bbc.co.uk Next up, let's quiz and here's Gemma. Good morning. Very, very excited to talk to you about your job. I am giddy with excitement. You are a race strategist. I am, yeah. Essentially, your job is to try and predict the future.

Yeah, it does sound a bit crazy when you say it like that. But yeah, that's what we aim to try and do. So talk us through the highs and the lows of this, because it's not just sort of before the actual race. Your job really kicks off when the race is happening, because all the variables and the weather and the tyres and how it's all going and all of that stuff. So how do you focus on a race day?

Yeah, so I mean, a lot of it starts in the pre-event. You know, we set out our approach to the weekend in terms of what tyres we're going to use and then what sort of key things we're looking out for in the race. And then when the lights go out, it's really monitoring all the data we have. So it's a lot of like looking at lap times, seeing how they're progressing, keeping an eye on our competitors. We listen to radios and all of the things like that. So we're keeping a sneaky eye on everyone else as well. But yeah, just trying to stay calm, cool, calm and collected.

And yeah, working together really. But it definitely gets stressful at moments. Yeah, of course it does. But also like elation when you get it right and you nail it and you're like, yes, I told you. I told you to go onto the medium tyre. Yeah.

Yeah, definitely. It's really good when you see things pay off as you want them to. So there's definitely high rewards as well, which is great. There was a great thing that former race strategist Bernie Collins said, which was that on the thing that really fascinated me about this was because obviously I'm a radio person. She says that you listen to all the radios across all the teams and everything. But she was talking specifically about her two drivers. She has one of the drivers in her left ear and the other driver in her right ear. Do you do a similar thing with Lando and Oscar?

Yeah, we get both of the streams of the different drivers and it's quite hard to pick. We have to listen to both the strategists, especially in the central role. So yeah, you can set them so they're coming in from each ear and that helps you kind of differentiate. I know some people struggle with telling the drivers apart, but it's something I guess you get used to over time. It's really cool. So you get to hear all the stuff we don't hear on the telly. So you hear all the swearing, you hear all they're slagging each other off and everything. So you hear the unfiltered.

all the discussion behind the scenes about, you know, when we're going to pit and everything else. So that side of things is really cool to be part of. So good. Such good nerdy behind the scenes stuff. So I guess you've been preparing for Melbourne already, have you? Yeah, so we've been looking at the first couple of races. We sort of got a bit of an overall picture of the season, but diving into Melbourne at the moment, kind of working out how the weekend's going to look for us and what those key factors are going to be that kind of changes things between a one stop and a two stop and those sort of things.

Okay, the listeners are nerding out now. This is good because all this week we've been learning about these new roles and everything and some of them you'll be able to see and you'll be able to imagine on the actual day. So people will be thinking about you on that race day. It's going to be really cool. So Gemma, this might be your biggest test yet. What's your strategy for yesterday's quiz?

Ooh, well, I think Fraser did really well. So I'm hoping to channel some of that energy and just, you know, come at it like a pit stop. Just quick and like, yeah, just go for it. Efficient. OK, so let's see if we have some dingers, do we? Yes, we do. You need to get 11 or more to get in the final tomorrow, Gemma. Here we go with question number one. Which singer of Poker Face and Disease was in a promo video for Saturday Night Live yesterday?

Lady Gaga? Yes, Haim released the cover art for their upcoming single Relationships. How many sisters are in the band Haim? Three. It is three. Liverpool played Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League yesterday, but who won? Liverpool. They did. It was confirmed that beavers are now roaming freely in England for the first time in 500 years. What would a free beaver sound like?

Yahoo! Very good. Two points for that. We had Joe on the show yesterday, but in which strange Netflix show does he play Steve Harrington? It's strange. It's a strange show. Strange. Where strange things happen. Oh, I don't know this one. Okay, it's called Stranger Things. It was... I was trying my best. It was announced that Jenny will be on Chicken Shop Date with Amelia de Moldenberg this week, but what huge K-pop girl band was she in? Um...

It was Blackpink. Yesterday was National Learn What Your Name Means Day. But what does the name Gemma mean? Does it mean precious stone or person of poor morals? Precious stone. It does mean precious stone. Chelsea played Leicester City in the Women's Super League, but who won? Let's go Chelsea. They did. A fan confused Kevin Jonas for Joe Jonas. What is the third Jonas brother called, though?

Kevin Joe and... Kevin Joe and... Come on, you know it, you know it, you know it. Oh, James Jonas, Kevin Jonas. Oh, I can't think. James Jonas, it's not that. Which Scottish DJ... It was Nick. Which Scottish DJ known for songs like Summer and How Deep Is Your Love shared a snippet of his upcoming song Smoke the Pain Away? Is it Calvin Harris? It is Calvin Harris. And with that, we're done.

It's like the lights have gone back on and the race is finished. Yes, the race is finished and you're at the back of the pack, I'm afraid. Yeah.

Which is not where McLaren are going to be this year. We hope not. Definitely not. Eight points today, Gemma. Oh, well, thank you very much. It was lovely to have you on. It was great to have an insight into your job as well. It's an absolutely amazing job. And, you know, the most common thing we've had this week from people texting in is, oh, my God, this is so cool. How do I get their jobs? How did you get your job?

I started on placement year, so it was really at uni. Just keep an eye out for jobs posted. They normally post quite early, so if you're at uni, definitely keep an eye out on all the webs for September. That's when they usually go live. And what's your specialism? Are you maths? Are you physics? What are you? I did mechanical engineering at uni. Nice, great.

Gemma, thanks so much for being on today and good luck for Melbourne. We won't be having you in the final tomorrow. You haven't. We'll have a lovely rest of your day. You've not made it through qualifying, I'm afraid, but have a good day today. And yeah, good luck for the season. Love Gemma. Very interesting job. Not great at the quiz, but you know, as I said earlier, I'd rather that they were focused on the cars really than, you know, frivolous pop culture. Although cars is frivolous as well, aren't they? Both stupid jobs.

So more quiz tomorrow, the final between Dickie, who is Lando's front left gunner, and Fraser, the front jack. Very masculine sounding jobs, aren't they? I'm a gunner and I'm a jack.

So they're on tomorrow at 7.15. Next up, let's get you up to date with all the latest things. Radio 1 Breakfast. All the latest things. And we start with some very happy news from friend of The Breakfast Show, Olympic shot putter, Scotty Lincoln. Now, back in the day, this must have been a good five, six years ago, maybe,

We got in touch with Scott Lincoln because his brother listens to Radio 1 and he said, oh, he sent a text one day and just said, Greg, you know, my brother is an Olympic shot putter. And we went, OK, this is a lead we need to follow. Then we started featuring Scott quite a lot on The Breakfast Show. He is an amazing bloke. He has had an amazing load of performances over the last few years. He had a tricky Paris, but we've got some great news. So we started following his journey around the Tokyo Olympics 2021.

It was his Olympic debut. And we spoke to him over the course of that event and when he got back as well. In fact, I met him at Olympics, sort of, there was an Olympic show we were doing and he was there and he gave me a little jersey from the Olympics and stuff. He was a great bloke.

But he's so chilled. For an Olympian, I guess you have to be chilled. I was sort of going in blind, as it, like, in effect, because I've never been in that position before, so I didn't know how I was supposed to be feeling, but I felt really relaxed. I was just... Good. I literally laid and chilled for, like, it sounds really stupid, but I laid and chilled for, like, two hours, just laid on my bed listening to different music and just...

Literally just blanked the world out. It was quite good. Now back then, as well as being an Olympian, he was a bricklayer by trade, worked with his dad, spoke about going back to work straight after competing. Luckily, my dad gave me a bit of an easy day driving around. So I was just driving and I was thinking like this time last week, I was getting set for the biggest competition of my life, the Olympic Games. And now I'm sat in my van, driving to pick some gear up from a local merchant. And I was just like, how has this even happened?

Then after Tokyo, he went to compete in the Paris Olympics as well. He won bronze in the 2022 Commonwealth Games as well as bronze in the 2023 European Games as well.

So he had a tricky Paris and he felt very, very down about what happened to him out in Paris. But some amazing news. It's just been announced that Scotty is the captain of the British team for the European Indoor Athletics Championships in the Netherlands. The games start today and go all weekend. Scotty is captaining a team of 42 athletes. That's amazing.

It's all about the highs and the lows, isn't it? When you're competing at that level, Scotty, and we wish you all the very best. We'd love to get you on The Breakfast Show at some point soon. So I hope it all goes well. We won't bother you now because you're busy being the captain, but keep smashing it.

Next up, let's go to a Jonas Brothers mix-up. Someone called Jasmine posted this video on TikTok of a time she met a man who she thought was Joe Jonas, but turns out... I'm with Joe Jonas. I'm Kevin, actually. It was actually Kevin. You let me say that this whole time. I wasn't going to correct you. I'm sorry, Kevin. It's okay. And then she got cross with him. Kevin's a good sport.

And finally, the Glastonbury lineup dropped at 8 o'clock this morning. And it is brilliant and it is big and it has made me very excited for the summer. So, Olivia Rodrigo, the 1975. They have been announced as the Sunday and the Friday headliners. Olivia Rodrigo on the Sunday, 1975 on the Friday. Also on the bill, Charlie XCX, Ray, Dochi, Noah Khan, Gracie Abrams.

Joe, Ezra Collective, Georgia Smith, Loyal Karner, Blossom, C-Mac, Miles Smith, Beba Doobie, Kneecap, Wolf Alice, AJ Tracy, Alanis Morissette for an amazing... I need to take my mum to see that because my mum got me into Alanis Morissette back in the old days and that's going to be amazing. Very excited for Glastonbury and here starts the petition to go and do the breakfast show from Glastonbury on the Friday morning. I'm just going to say it out loud just so that it's on record.

I'll be pushing hard for that. So, guys, don't you worry. Don't you worry about that. And now, let's do Thursday. Callum Leslie, hello. Hello. Hey. It's Thursday. I know. That means on Thursdays, we weigh.

And we have had hundreds of voice notes again. And we're ready to go with a big Thursday banger. We're going to play this and then we're going to hear what people are excited about. I think that is a good idea. As our love language, as our country's love language, the way just gives off so much emotion. It tells us so much about a person. Today's song then, sounds like the news music, doesn't it? I was going to say, this is the news music. I like this. It's very Clive Myrie, isn't it, this?

Today's Thursday song. Good. Good choice. It's Red Light. Thank you for your voice notes. They are incoming. We weigh. Okay. Last shift before two weeks of Gregory.

Good start. And again. My newborn baby hasn't pooed on me today. Wee! Wee! We're going to Alexandra Palace tomorrow to see Sub Focus. There's a lot of us going. Wee! Wee! I've got tickets to Glastonbury. Wee! And the line-up is beautiful. Yes, it is. Wee!

Okay. My new car is being delivered next Tuesday. Wahey. Wahey.

I'm competing at Crufts tomorrow. Wahey! I thought it was dogs only. That's a plot twist. I'm competing at Crufts tomorrow. Wahey! Unless that was a dog talking. Or maybe. We're excited for the weekend because it's our stag and hendoos. Wahey! Bryony! I'm going on my hendoo tomorrow.

I can't wait. Tis the season, obviously. Oh, I love this song. What a great record this is. Red light, get out my head. We've got so many stags and hens. Off to the forest of Dean for my Sean Stag do. Look out, forest of Dean. The forest of Sean.

I'm going to the Forest of Shaun for Dean Stagdew. Sorry, no, I mean the Forest of Dean for Shaun Stagdew. Off to the Forest of Dean for my mate Shaun Stagdew. Depending on the spelling, Shaun's only one letter away from Dean. Yeah, yeah. Jordan! Another busy morning delivering medical goods.

I was waiting for more of the sale there. Sounds thrilled, thrilled with that. What about this one? I'm in the library, Greg. It's creepy, but very good. Thank you, Tony in Ashford. I'm in the library, Greg. Yeah.

Do the staff know you're there? I've been in the library for seven days. What else? Going away this weekend with my husband for a child-free getaway. Or just don't have them and every getaway is child-free. Horribly empty and child-free getaways, child. Hey! Hey!

Ronnie's in Birmingham. I'm going to see Sabrina Carpenter in Birmingham tonight. Looking forward to driving down London to watch the Sidemen charity match. That'll be great. That was when, that was this time last year, wasn't it? When Max Foch did the Uno reverse card on the referee. Do you remember? So he did, yeah. With some more hijinks this weekend, I'm sure. Georgia. I'm going to get my hair done today. Woo!

Whee! Thanks, Georgia. I made jam sandwiches to have on my lunch today. Whee! Nice. Just got on an earlier ferry than planned. Boom! Home time early. Whee! Ferry to and from work is a flex, isn't it? It really is, isn't it? It's really good. Yeah, it's good. Jenna? I'm running the 10K around the Olympic Park on Saturday. Whee! Whee! And one more for now. I'm in London at the final interview stage for a job in the Bahamas. Whee!

Excuse me? Annette in Plymouth is having a laugh. I'm in London at the final interview stage for a job in the Bahamas. Wow. Can I do the news from the Bahamas, please? Could I ask? It's always worth an ask, isn't it? If you don't ask, you don't get. The Bahamas. Hard to justify, isn't it, sending you out to the Bahamas? I think so. If you found a news story...

I think even then. I think you've got to find some sort of holiday scandal, some resort.

going to get digging on that I think yeah what could you do like badly kept air conditioning units or something like something you know you'll find something on that resort yesterday we were talking about nature healing and what the signs of that were in the real world well we had a little update from something we mentioned yesterday this was all from a funny tiktok from Olivia Bruce that we liked as she said if I know England and I do the

We are one sunny day away from a topless man. One. Stay vigilant, guys. Stay vigilant. I actually saw on comedian Josh Widdicombe's Instagram that he was out for a run and he saw a man in front of him running with his top off. And Josh Widdicombe was basically like, I hate these guys so much. It's happened already. Josh has spotted it.

Other signs from you yesterday that nature's healing? Tell me it's not almost spring if you don't see an old man with his soft top convertible roof down, but always in a lovely car. That was a good one. Also this. Morning, Greg, Lisa and Guilford here celebrating the change in the weather with taking my first hay fever tablet of the season. Hurrah for the trees. Thank you. We like Lisa. Hurrah for the trees, darling.

I also mentioned yesterday, there's a lovely man called Mark. Mark Higgins, if you're interested. He works at Six Music. He produces Grimmie on The Breakfast Show. And he said, we said about him yesterday about his shorts. And we said, that's how I know that Summer's properly here. It's because Mark is the shorts guy.

I got Billy, who works on this breakfast show, to go and check that Mark was wearing his shorts yesterday. He wasn't yet. So I challenged Mark yesterday and I said, look, I've given you a shout out. Let me know your thoughts, please. I would say broadly, it's April until about October that you will find me

not wearing trousers and wearing shorts instead. Okay, so this was Mark's very serious answer. He has definitive rules for shorts wearing. So it's a good seven-month spread, quite literally. But are there exceptions? The issue is at the moment, I don't know if you've looked at the weather, it's going to get a little bit warmer at the weekend. So you're thinking, yeah, shorts on, but then back to being cold again. And for me, once I've gone into shorts, I've

I can't go back. So there's no return from the shorts. I'm going to keep my eye out, keep my eye on the long range weather forecast and rest assured you will be the first person to know when I make the big change into shorts. I'm excited for this. Very excited. And I'll pass that on to you as well because that means that spring has officially arrived when Mark from Six Music puts his shorts on.

But remember, when those shorts go on, they cannot come off. And that is the end of today's Radio 1 All Day Breakfast podcast. Thanks for listening. I'll be back with you tomorrow with the final of the quiz, all the latest things, loads of other fun stuff as well on a Friday. And yeah, we'll catch up then. Goodbye. Radio 1's All Day Breakfast. With Greg James.