Anyone who has ever taken part in an escape room knows it’s an intense experience, and that’s when you spend no more than a couple of hours in one.
So spare a thought for Greg James, who spent over 30 hours in one this week.
The Radio 1 DJ entered the specially-built room during Monday’s breakfast show, discovering that he had to crack a 6-digit code in order to be let out.
We’re pleased to announce that on Tuesday afternoon, he finally worked out the right numbers: 412182.
Why did it take so long? If you’re wondering this, you clearly have no idea how tough the puzzle was.
Greg did have the help of some clues, starting with a hangman grid with missing words that were all acts with hit songs containing the word “star”.
And then... Well, then there were hours of confusion which somehow involved clips from songs, Claudia Winkleman, a puzzle of Ricky Hatton, a cookbook and one of Greg’s favourite TV moments, ‘Why hello Jill’.
We’re going to let him explain how it was all done and you can see the moment he broke free too:
Our heads hurt just listening to this. Well done, Greg.
Oh and if you have no idea what the “Why hello Jill” moment Greg is referring to is, then familiarise yourself here.
After escaping the room, Greg likened the experience to his 2018 Sport Relief challenge, admitting that solving the clues had been “even worse than climbing Ben Nevis, and I hated doing that more than anything in my life”.
Greg is no stranger to a (slightly bonkers) stunt or two, previously taking part in a nationwide game of hide and seek with Nick Grimshaw when it was first announced last year that he’d landed the job as Radio 1 Breakfast Show host.
Last September, he also organised #PassThePasty, which saw a traditional Cornish pasty carried Olympic torch-style all the way to Aberdeenshire.