Hyde-native radio presenter Becky Want is heading out on an unusual tour of the UK this week, including stop offs at pubs in Newcastle and Barnsley. She’s taking the famous bust of Queen Victoria from the bar of Eastenders’ Queen Vic pub (or at least a replica thereof) on a tour of its real-life pub namesakes across the nation for BBC local radio’s The Late Show.
Broadcast on local BBC radio stations across England and the Channel Islands, The Late Show will be on the road all this week alongside the South’s most famous hostelry’s iconic busk of the former royal.
In partnership with BBC History, weekday presenter Want and the weekend’s Jo Good will broadcast their shows from the various pubs, all sharing the name The Queen Victoria, every night in honour of the BBC ONE hit soap Eastenders turning 40 this later this month.
The tour began last night in The Queen Vic, Gosforth, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and will call in at The Queen Victoria in Darfield (Barnsley) before heading South via Leicester and Essex, finishing in the Bermondsey pub said to have inspired Albert Square’s famous Queen Victoria at the heart of the TV soap.
The pair will take BBC History’s replica Queen Vic bust, as seen(ish) on the bar in Walford, to real Queen Vic pubs across England, meeting the people who live, work, and socialise in them.
The all-England Late Show will broadcast from The Queen Vic pubs from 10pm to 1am, meeting local communities in each area and hearing stories about what makes each place special.
Presenter Want said: “What an honour to be taking the precious Queen Vic bust on her first ever road trip across the country! She’s seen some sights in Walford over the last 40 years and we can’t wait to find out what stories she will witness this week from England’s real-life Queen Vics.”
The Late Show broadcasts from 10pm to 1am on your local BBC radio station, and on BBC Sounds.
Want, a seasoned Northern broadcaster who landed the national Late Show weekday gig following the BBC’s controversial changes to local radio programming in 2023/24. She urged Prolific North, and listeners alike, to “give it a chance” when the new schedules were announced.
One can only wonder whether that included the hypothetical chance to tour the nation’s pubs accompanied by a two-foot-tall replica of a statue from a soap.
