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Belfast Live
Belfast Live
Entertainment
Sophie McLaughlin

BBC Radio 1 bring 'Nadine Coyle' to Belfast city centre

BBC Radio 1 has brought its weekday afternoon show to Belfast for a special week of broadcasting hosted by NI's own Dean McCullough.

Dean and co-host Vicky Hawkesworth have also been joined by special guest 'Nadine Coyle' as part of a popular bit on their radio show involving cardboard cutouts.

In the hope of spreading the simple joy of spotting a silly cardboard cut out in a window, Newtownabbey man Dean is delighted to bring Radio 1 home and show the station is for everyone across the UK to enjoy.

Read more: BBC Radio 1 airing live from Belfast with NI host

Speaking to Belfast Live, Dean and Vicky explained the joke behind their Nadine cutout and that fans can hope to spot her peering out the window in Belfast city centre later this week.

Vicky said: "There is a very famous cardboard cutout of Taylor Swift in Manchester called 'Tram Taylor' because everyone can see her from a certain tram stop and she's been there for about five years and everyone would see her on their commute.

Even the typical NI weather could not dampen their excitement to be in Belfast (Justin Kernoghan/ Belfast Live)

"There was an uproar because apparently, she was going to have to move out because the owner of the flat was leaving and so we talked about it on the show and we had so many people message in about cardboard cutouts they see every day."

From Hagrid to Danny DiVito, Dean and Vicky were inundated with messages about cardboard celebs popping up all over the UK but noticed a lack of responses from their Northern Irish listeners.

"There wasn't any really in Northern Ireland and we thought that this was our opportunity to take a cardboard cutout over, put it in a window and spread some joy," she laughed.

After asking their listeners who would they want to see popping up across Belfast, Girls Aloud legend Nadine Coyle took the majority vote.

Dean said: "There was a lovely girl called Orla who got in contact with us and she works for the NHS in Belfast and said it should be Nadine because she just always makes people happy.

"It's so stupid and there is no real profound reason to it but we always wanted to come and now this is why we are here which is so silly."

They are broadcasting from their pop-up studio in the Titanic Quarter (Justin Kernoghan/ Belfast Live)

He continued: "Whenever we got this show, one of the first questions I asked my boss was when can we take the show to Belfast because I love being from here.

"I moved to London when I was 17 which was like 14 years ago now so the dream of ever having a radio show on Radio 1 was one thing but the fact there was a slight possibility that we could do it in Belfast was massive to me.

"The Radio 1 listeners in Northern Ireland are amazing and are really really loyal but there is still this thing that Radio 1 is for people in London but that is just not true - the fact that we are here in Northern Ireland is brilliant."

You can listen to Dean and Vicky from 1pm-3.30pm on BBC Radio 1 as they broadcast from Belfast until Thursday or catch up on BBC Radio Sounds

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