Radio 1 RPF

RPF Fandom
Name(s):	Radio 1 RPF, BBC Radio One RPF, BBCR1
Scope/Focus:	BBC Radio 1 presenters, producers and associated individuals
Date(s):	2012-present
See also:	One Direction, Gryles, Tomlinshaw, British Singers RPF
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Radio 1 RPF is an RPF fandom centering around the presenters and producers working at BBC Radio 1, often paired with members of One Direction.

Fandom History

With the notable exception of one work posted as early as 2005, the fandom's presence on AO3 begins in the fall of 2012 in the form of crossovers with One Direction. Because of the amount of canon interaction between One Direction members and Radio One staff, due to the band's numerous partnerships with the radio station and to the well-publicized friendship between Harry Styles and Nick Grimshaw, there is significant overlap between the two fandoms.

Though there existed a small fannish following for Nick Grimshaw's night-time show on the BBC, the fandom took off after he was named the next host of the iconic Breakfast Show, starting September 2012.

The Breakfast Show acquired a following of international fans present mainly on Tumblr and on Twitter, some of whom call themselves the Breakfast Babes. Breakfast Show fans might live-blog the show on Tumblr or Twitter as well as create fanworks such as meta, fic, podfic, graphics, vids (etc) about the team dynamics and intra-team ships, independent of One Direction.

Greg James, presenter of BBC Radio 1's 4-7pm slot, also makes regular appearances in Radio 1 RPF and Radio 1/One Direction crossovers, either as a background character or paired with 1D's Louis Tomlinson. This is likely due to the fact that he and Tomlinson were paired up during One Direction's "takeover" of the radio station on October 6, 2012 as promotion for the Radio 1 Teen Awards, and due to the 1D fandom's fixation on height difference in Louis ships.

Common Pairings

• Nick Grimshaw/Harry Styles aka Gryles, Stymshaw: 1253 works posted to AO3 as of July 29, 2015.
• Nick Grimshaw/Louis Tomlinson aka Tomlinshaw: 834 works posted to AO3 as of July 29, 2015.
• Greg James/Louis Tomlinson: 53 works posted to AO3 as of July 29, 2015.
• Nick Grimshaw/Matt Fincham (Breakfast Show producer) aka Grincham: 29 works posted to AO3 as of July 29, 2015.
• Nick Grimshaw/Greg James exists but is less common, appearing mostly as a background pairing on AO3: 8 works posted as of July 29, 2015.

The Fourth Wall

The fourth wall in Radio 1 fandom is paper thin to non-existent.

Tumblr

The Breakfast Show team in general and Nick Grimshaw in particular are known for being aware of, monitoring and often mentioning Tumblr activity about themselves.

As part of the 2012 effort to radically rebrand the Breakfast Show to a younger demographic, social media producer Laura-May Coope (aka LMC) created a Tumblr account for the program, sending its Tumblr fandom into a frenzy as team members discussed finding and reading their own tags on the site. Tumblr user radio-done wrote, in caption to a reblog of a clip of that moment, tellingly entitled "the great radio 1 tumblr debacle":

(it’s cute ‘will you teach me how to do a gif? is that what they’re called, like them dancing people?’ until they start talking about searching their tags…then it becomes terrifying).

The team quickly became conscious of the unease their fourth wall breaks created. After another early mention of the Breakfast Show's Tumblr account, this exchange occurred on air:

Nick Grimshaw: Why do people on Tumblr not like it when we talk about Tumblr? Is it like Fight Club?

Matt Fincham: It's like a secret club, I think they'd rather remain secret.

Nick Grimshaw: So I probably shouldn’t talk about it on the Radio 1 Breakfast show, really, should I? Also, not that secret, millions of people on it. They never like us talking about it, we always get really aggressive texts, [they'll] be like "Shut up about Tumblr, Tumblr’s for us." So we’re gonna have Tumblr beef I imagine, right now.

The show's Tumblr appears to have been deleted or re-purposed for use by the whole Radio 1 and Radio 1 Xtra stations, with the team making use of Twitter to communicate with fans. However, there is plenty of evidence that the team still visit Tumblr. Shout-outs to Tumblr and specific fan accounts occur regularly, sometimes asking that Tumblr fans provide them with specific manips or gifs. In May 2014, assistant producer Ian Chaloner instagrammed and tweeted a screencap of a Tumblr post quoting that morning's show. At times when the cameras have been on in the studio, the team could be seen with Tumblr open on their computers.

Fanfiction and shipping

There is no doubt all involved are aware of fanfiction and shipping, both within Radio 1 RPF and crossed with One Direction. Their public response appears to be mostly amused.

Nick Grimshaw and Matt Fincham have bickered on air about whether their ship name should be 'Grincham' or 'Finshaw'.

On February 7, 2014, when Harry Styles gave Nick Grimshaw a seemingly spontaneous phonecall during the show, producer Matt Fincham could be heard in the background, gleefully saying:

Tumblr is about to explode. That’s for all the Gryles fans out there.

Greg James has been praised by fandom for his understanding of fourth wall issues. In a departure from typical, often cringe-worthy interviews seeking to shock or embarrass fans or celebrities by bringing up fanfic, in his August 2013 interview of 1D's Niall and Louis he explained:

I'm not going to expose these people's fanfiction, because I've learnt a lot about this world, it's their world, it's private, they can do what they want, they can write the weird stuff.

Instead, the trio acted out short stories written specifically for the occasion by listeners of the show.

Example Fanworks and Fandom Activities

Primers

• 'Hey you should get to know Greg James' primer by gregjamesbond, posted on Tumblr sometime before December 2012.
• breakfast show primer by thistidalwave, posted on Tumblr, February 6, 2014.

Fanvids

• A Fanvid for The Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Nick Grimshaw by chocolatesal, posted on YouTube February 21, 2013.
• #finchy a collaborative effort orchestrated by Lily S, posted on YouTube June 23, 2014 on the occasion of Matt Fincham's birthday.

Earliest AO3 fics by pairing

• Two Bags of Chips and I'll Race You There by sunsetmog, Edith Bowman/Colin Murray, posted July 28, 2005.
• I Used to Think We Were Forever by mrsyt31, Nick Grimshaw/Harry Styles, posted August 22, 2012.
• Tear You Down by Randominity, Nick Grimshaw/Louis Tomlinson, posted September 13, 2012.
• you didn't have to by boobear, Greg James/Louis Tomlinson, posted October 11, 2012.
• Worst Best Idea by wantstothrill, Nick Grimshaw/Matt Fincham, posted October 31, 2012.

Earliest podfics by pairing

• Accidentally In Love by l_niania, Nick Grimshaw/Harry Styles, posted on January 13, 2013.
• This Is Your Fault (Where Circumference Is Irrelevant, and Length Matters) by greedy_dancer, Nick Grimshaw/Louis Tomlinson, posted January 20, 2014.

Charity

• Nick Grimshaw Positivity Fund, an ongoing fandom effort to raise money for the Albert Kennedy Trust in Nick's name, started after he was targeted online in a particularly vicious bout of homophobic abuse.

Fandom Resources

• Tumblr user Magog83's archive of Breakfast Show clips
• Tumblr user carrierpigeonss' archive of entire Breakfast Show episodes
• ngrim livejournal community and associated twitter account
• gregjamesfans Tumblr account

External Links

• BBC Radio 1 website
• Official BBCR1 Tumblr
• The Radio 1 Breakfast Show with Nick Grimshaw on BBC iPlayer
• Breakfast Show Twitter account