Danny Wallace's new show is funny, understated and just the thing if you don't like shouty shows in the morning
A month after taking over the Xfm Breakfast Show, and there's still a newish feel to Danny Wallace's act. "Let's do what I call Paper View," he suggested just after 7am yesterday. There wasn't unbridled enthusiasm from the team. "I'm persisting with it," Wallace said, leading into a funny take on a story involving someone called Noone; a detail that clearly tickled him. "Donald No-One," he laughed. "It looks like "Noone" on here, but it's clearly No-One."
There are lots of gently humorous moments like that in the show, as you might expect with Wallace at the helm. A caller on a competition was fantastically laidback, a fact Wallace swooped upon. "Thanks for your support," he said, pausing before adding, "and your enthusiasm." There's some rather fine vocabulary too. The phone-in was on things "inadvertently pilfered" and Wallace later commended someone on "excellent use of 'ignominy'".
It combines Xfm's music (The Killers, Stereophonics, Arcade Fire, Snow Patrol) with a breakfast vibe that's nicely understated and tolerable for listeners allergic to effervescent, shouty shows in the morning. The pilfering led to stories that were gloriously underwhelming and odd: a pack of toilet rolls hooked to a shopping trolley and wheeled out of the shop; a cheap pair of socks mistakenly not paid for. The accidental thief went back later to pay and didn't get quite the welcome she expected. "Oh, you're one of those people," a sulky member of staff said.
Apart from local travel news and weather, the show positions itself as a UK-wide listen broadcast from London. In one feature, Wallace asks for pleasing tidings: "Good news from the city, good news from the country". Again, the material this garnered was likeably quirky. News reporter Matt Dyson celebrated successfully relocating a big spider at home "using a pink plastic bowl and copy of Grazia". Then Wallace ended the show with The Foo Fighters, fluffing the band's name a bit. "The Foofs, as only I say," he quipped.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2011/aug/30/radio-head-xfm-breakfast-show
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