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Paul Hollywood, Bear Grylls, the Salvation Army, Tom Odell and Len Goodman

Chris gets that festive feeling going with special guests: Paul Hollywood, Bear Grylls, Salvation Army, Tom Odell and Len Goodman.

2 hours, 59 minutes

Last on

Fri 19 Dec 2014 06:30
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2

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Clip

Music Played

  • The Beatles

    Christmas Time is Here Again!

    • (CD Single).
    • Apple.

  • Mariah Carey

    All I Want For Christmas Is You

    • Mariah Carey - Merry Christmas.
    • Columbia.

  • Jamie Cullum

    Don't You Know

    • (CD Single).
    • Island.

  • Sammy Davis Jr.

    Talk To The Animals

    • Sammy Davis Greatest Hits.
    • Curb.
    • 1.

  • Paloma Faith

    Leave While I'm Not Looking

    • A Perfect Contradiction.
    • RCA.

  • Glenn Miller AAF Band

    Moonlight Serenade

    • GI Jukebox.

  • Phil Harris & Bruce Reitherman

    The Bare Necessities

    • The Disney Collection Volume 2 (Various Artists).
    • Pickwick.
    • 6.

  • The Jacksons

    I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus

    • 20 Motown Christmas Classics (Variou.
    • Hitsville.

  • Elton John

    Step Into Christmas

    • Caribou.
    • Mercury.

  • Journey

    Don't Stop Believin'

    • Rock Of America (Various Artists).
    • Trax Label.

  • KC and the Sunshine Band

    Boogie Shoes

    • Very Best Of KC & The Sunshine Band.
    • Chrysalis.

  • Chuck Miller

    The House Of Blue Lights

  • Glenn Miller

    In The Mood

    • Big Bands (Various Artists).
    • Music & Memories.

  • Morecambe & Wise

    Bring Me Sunshine

    • Summer Holiday (Various Artists).
    • Sony Music.

  • Olly Murs

    Up (feat. Demi Lovato)

    • Never Been Better.
    • Epic.
    • 004.

  • Nina & Frederik

    Little Donkey

    • 100 Fabulous All Time Hits (Various).
    • World Record Club.

  • Gregory Porter

    A Cradle In Bethlehem (Radio 2 Session, 12 Dec 2014)

    • The Christmas Song.
    • Capitol.

  • Pratt & McClain

    Happy Days

    • Television's Greatest Hits Volume 3 70s & 80s.
    • Silva Screen Records Ltd.

  • Otis Redding

    White Christmas

    • Soul Christmas (Various Artists).
    • Atlantic.

  • Mark Ronson

    Uptown Funk (feat. Bruno Mars)

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

  • Slade

    Merry Xmas Everybody

    • (CD Single).
    • EMI.

  • Taylor Swift

    Shake It Off

    • (CD Single).
    • Big Machine.
    • 1.

  • Take That

    Shine (Radio 2 In Concert, 18 Dec 2014)

Pause for Thought

Pause for Thought

From Nick Baines, Bishop of Leeds for the Diocese of West Yorkshire & the Dales:

Call me immature, but ever since I became a vicar I had a competition with myself at Christmas. It was to get a Bruce Cockburn quote into every Christmas sermon. I have now managed to quote the Canadian songwriter for twenty seven years.

Why? Well, sometimes the poetry of someone else shines new light into what has become familiar - like ... er ... Christmas. So, instead of banging on in prose, I drop in this bit of lyric: "Like a stone on the surface of a still river, driving the ripples on for ever, redemption rips through the surface of time in the cry of a tiny babe."

Brilliant, isn't it? In a world dominated by power, bigness, violence and competitiveness, it is the cry of a tiny babe that penetrates the fog and defies the misery. Or, as someone once put it, there's no point just shouting at the darkness; light a candle! A small light can dispel a lot of murkiness.

I think this is how love works - real love. Not some superficial romance, but the committed love that gets stuck into the world as it is and doesn't just wait for it to be as we would like it to be. Real love pours itself out and, as I have put it elsewhere, is drawn by hope, not driven by fear.

It seems to me that this is what Christmas is about, really. That God doesn't wait until we have sorted ourselves out, but comes into the world as one of us - in a way that we can recognise. This, I think, is what real love is about: God committing himself to all the vulnerabilities of human living in a complicated place.

This isn't just the icing on the top of the Christmas cake; it's the sherry-soaked fruit in the heart of it. It's not the peripheral dad-dancing I do to embarrass my kids; it's the strictly committed tango that real dancers do. It isn't some namby-pamby camping 'experience', but the full-blooded live-off-your-wits survival stuff in the jungle.

Christmas is God getting down and dirty - where we are. Isn't that brilliant? Redemption rips through the surface of time in the cry of a tiny babe.

Happy Christmas!Β 

Broadcast

  • Fri 19 Dec 2014 06:30
    Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 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

Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 2's story-writing competition for kids.