''Chris Evans Drivetime'' was the incarnation of the drivetime show on

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...

from 18 April 2006 to 24 December 2009, and aired on weekdays between 17:00 and 19:00 in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. It was presented by Chris Evans, who moved to Drivetime from his Saturday afternoon show after

Johnnie Walker Johnnie Walker is a brand of Scotch whisky produced by Diageo in Scotland. It was established in the Scottish burgh of Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire in 1820, and continued to be produced and bottled at the town's Hill Street plant, once the world's ...

left the slot after seven years in 2006. On 7 September 2009 the BBC announced that Evans would take over the breakfast show from Sir

Terry Wogan Sir Michael Terence Wogan (; 3 August 1938 – 31 January 2016) was an Irish radio and television broadcaster who worked for the BBC in Britain for most of his career. Between 1993 and his semi-retirement in 2009, his BBC Radio 2 weekday brea ...

, from January 2010, and on 15 September it was confirmed that

Simon Mayo Simon Andrew Hicks Mayo (born 21 September 1958) is an English radio presenter and author who worked for BBC Radio from 1982 until 2022. Mayo has presented across three BBC stations for extended periods. From 1986 to 2001 he worked for Radio ...

would replace Evans on ''

Drivetime DriveTime Automotive Group Inc. is an American used car retailer and finance company. It is based in Tempe, Arizona, and sells and finances cars to customers around the nation. The company was formerly known as Ugly Duckling and was renamed Dr ...

''. Mayo had been a stand in presenter for Evans on a few occasions.

The team

Chris was joined throughout the programme by three colleagues.

Rebecca Pike Rebecca Pike is a British journalist currently Head of Digital Media at Liberty Global. Previously she worked as Radio and TV business presenter for the BBC. Early life Pike was born in Lewisham, London. She attended Bedales School and Magdalen ...

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Fox, read the business news. Jonny Saunders read the sports headlines.

Sally Boazman Sally Boazman is a British radio traffic news reporter on the national radio station BBC Radio 2. Her reporting introduced live reports from motorists on mobile phones and lorry drivers on CB radio. Boazman has presented Radio 2's weekend trav ...

presented the travel updates.

Rebecca Pike

Rebecca Pike, formerly Fox, read the business headlines including the

FTSE FTSE may refer to: * FTSE Group, a British provider of stock market indices * FTSE 100 Index and other stock market indices: ** FTSE/Athex Large Cap (symbol: FTSE) on the Athens Stock Exchange * Fundamental theorem of software engineering *Fellow ...

market data and

exchange rates In finance, an exchange rate is the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another currency. Currencies are most commonly national currencies, but may be sub-national as in the case of Hong Kong or supra-national as in the case of ...

, at 17:20 and 18:20 each day. Listeners also sent in their business-related questions, which Foxy then answered in the second slot. This feature was known as Fox the Fox and was accompanied by

Danny Kaye Danny Kaye (born David Daniel Kaminsky; ; January 18, 1911 – March 3, 1987) was an American actor, comedian, singer, and dancer. His performances featured physical comedy, idiosyncratic pantomimes, and rapid-fire novelty songs. Kaye starred ...

's ''Outfox the Fox'', which acted as the theme tune. Fox the Fox did not appear on Fridays, when the 18:20 round-up was marked with an innovation slot.

Jonny Saunders

Jonny Saunders rounded up the sports headlines at several points during the show, and spoke to a sports personality every day at 18:50, who was said to be "in the locker". Jonny's Friday slot included a talk about a "mad sport". Jonny also provided the voice for top tenuous, jukebox jury and gobsmackers. See below.

Sally Boazman

As well as her traffic duties, Sally was involved with various other aspects of the show's line-up.

Features, Monday – Thursday

As well as business, sport and traffic; the line-up on most weekdays included various features.

The Kids

Chris spoke to a child each day, who had done something for the first time ever. Their achievements were awarded with a fanfare.

Woman's Minute

In a gentle parody of

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

's ''

Woman's Hour ''Woman's Hour'' is a radio magazine programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC Light Programme, BBC Radio 2, and later BBC Radio 4. It has been on the air since 1946. History The first BBC programme for women was the programme cal ...

'', Chris spoke to four women in quick succession. They were asked who they were, where they were and what they were driving, and for their answer to that week's question.

Theme Time Radio Minute

A parody of Bob Dylan's ''

Theme Time Radio Hour ''Theme Time Radio Hour'' (''TTRH'') was a weekly one-hour satellite radio show hosted by Bob Dylan that originally aired from May 2006 to April 2009. Each episode had a freeform mix of music, centered on a theme (such as "Weather", "Money" or ...

'', Chris played a listener-requested TV theme tune.

Top Tenuous

Jonny decided the famous person whose listener associations were showcased. This was usually somebody who had been in the news on that day. The aim was for these associations to be as weak as possible, with the top 10 most tenuous being the ones selected.

Drivetime Jukebox Jury

Jonny also presided over the Jukebox Jury. A new track was played, and listeners were invited to text either "hit" or "miss", plus their comments, to the programme. Jonny read The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of these comments (over said theme tune) before Chris announced whether the track was overall a hit or a miss.

Tom Jones Tom Jones may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Tom Jones (singer) (born 1940), Welsh singer *Tom Jones (writer) (1928–2023), American librettist and lyricist *''The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling'', a novel by Henry Fielding published in 1 ...

was present at the judgement of his single " Give a Little Love", but Chris claimed that there were no negative texts received.

Gobsmackers

Immediately following the drivetime jukebox jury, two connected tracks were played, which were selected by a listener.

Monday Mince

In 2009, a cheesy song was played after the 18:00 news each Monday, dedicated to burly truckers everywhere.

Thirsty Thursday

Thursday's programme was known as Thirsty Thursday, and included food with Nigel Barden. The daily clips of how to contact the show were also played simultaneously, as something of a special treat.

All Request Friday

On Fridays, each song was selected by a listener, and all features apart from sport, business and travel were hour-short. The first track was selected on the blog, and thereafter listeners phoned in their requests. All-request Friday was introduced by a rendition of the song "Bring Chris Evans On". When the Friday show was cancelled, such as in

Holy Week Holy Week () commemorates the seven days leading up to Easter. It begins with the commemoration of Triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, marks the betrayal of Jesus on Spy Wednesday (Holy Wednes ...

, Thursday was used as the request day.

Mascot

Also selected annually was the drivetime mascot. The Rex Factor saw listeners' dogs battle it out to become the official mascot. The mascot until the end of the show's run was Biscuit, a bearded collie/terrier X. As of 9 April 2009, Biscuit had 1,619 friends on his facebook page.

Awards

At the 2009

Sony Radio Academy Awards The Radio Academy Awards, started in 1983, were the most prestigious awards in the British radio industry. For most of their existence, they were run by ZAFER Associates, but in latter years were brought under the control of The Radio Academy ...

, Chris Evans was awarded Radio Personality of the Year, and Drivetime was awarded the Entertainment Award.

U2 Concert

On 27 February 2009, U2 joined the show and played a 20-minute concert on the roof of

Broadcasting House London Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. T ...

to 5,000 listeners.

References

{{BBC Radio 2 British music radio programmes BBC Radio 2 programmes