Celebrity perfume season had arrived
Listener Sophie had noticed an annual sign that Christmas was approaching.
Celebrity perfume adverts were back.
The formula was familiar: dramatic lighting, wet hair for no obvious reason, beaches, cities, slow-motion walking and somebody looking extremely serious before a French-sounding product name appeared.
Sophie was tired of them.
Chris saw a business opportunity.
If every celebrity could launch a perfume, why not Scott and Chris?
Scott initially treated the suggestion as another stupid radio idea.
By the end of the show, he was beginning to wonder whether it could genuinely make money.
What would the show smell like?
The important question was not the name.
It was the smell.
Listeners were asked whether they would actually wear a Scott Mills and Chris Stark fragrance and what it should contain.
The answers naturally became autobiographical.
The programme had years of recurring jokes and associations which could somehow become ingredients.
Eau De Tap End immediately emerged as one possible name, taking the show’s long-running Tap End history and making it sound vaguely French.
Bingo Juice was another.
Scott thought something sold in a proper bottle with an expensive-looking advert could probably make almost any ridiculous title sound legitimate.
Chris was already imagining millions.
Funny Business kept supplying terrible names
The programme also played another round of Funny Business.
The rule remained deliberately simple.
One presenter gave the other the number of a real business whose name sounded rude or ridiculous.
The caller then had to make a normal enquiry without laughing.
The businesses had done nothing wrong.
Their names simply became much harder to say once a Radio 1 audience knew why the call was happening.
The feature had become one of the easiest ways to make Scott and Chris lose composure.
The perfume idea did not disappear
Normally an idea this silly might have lasted for one programme.
This one did not.
Listeners genuinely said they would buy it.
People with professional experience began getting in touch.
By the end of Tuesday, Eau De Tap End had moved from a joke about Christmas adverts into something the programme was going to investigate properly.
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