Friday Extra Show: Scott was about to disappear
Extra podcast edition
Chris recorded the Friday podcast immediately after Thursday’s show.
For once, Scott was still in the studio with him.
They had swapped their normal seats and both found the new view unsettling.
Scott was about to go on holiday for roughly two weeks.
Chris would first present with Matt Edmondson and then with Alice Levine.
Scott joked that he would spend the break regrouping, finding himself and doing mindfulness.
Chris did not believe him.
He knew that within a few days Scott would probably start messaging to ask what the show was doing without him.
Maria’s boat story reached Australia
The podcast revisited Maria’s Where Do You Think They Were?
Her mum Anne had revealed the storm, the yacht and the unusual anti-seasickness technique which led to Maria.
Because most of Maria’s family lived in Australia, they had not heard it live.
Maria had sent them the podcast.
Younger relatives were now messaging her to express their disgust.
Her partner’s mother, who had never met Maria’s mum, had effectively heard Anne speak for the first time while discussing her daughter’s conception on a yacht.
Maria nevertheless said she was pleased she had done the feature.
The birthday message had been worth it.
Helen’s florist notebook contained much worse
During the weekday show, florist Helen had described writing unusual messages onto flower cards.
One customer had ended a romantic message by praising the recipient’s “fat feet”.
There had been another detail Helen could not say on daytime Radio 1.
The Friday podcast removed that restriction.
The full compliment was:
“Your fat feet and your flying-saucer-shaped nipples.”
Helen explained that florists were expected to write exactly what customers requested, then often read the message back to check it.
That meant saying extremely intimate lines aloud to complete strangers with a professional customer-service voice.
Her shop kept a small anonymous notebook of the strangest messages.
One apologised for whatever had happened “last night” and mentioned stains.
Another thanked somebody for “the wonderful sausages”.
A new-baby message congratulated the recipient by observing that at least her vagina was not “in tatters”.
Chris immediately wanted Helen and the notebook back on the weekday programme.
Planet Girth had been too good to broadcast
Chris then opened the Radio 1 vault.
He had once invited Chabuddy G to record a parody of *Planet Earth*.
The idea was called Planet Girth.
Chabuddy watched nature footage and provided his own narration in place of Sir David Attenborough.
Chris had been convinced the finished video would be one of the best things Radio 1 had ever made.
Then rights and approval problems killed it.
The video could not be released.
Most of the audio never made the show.
The Friday podcast finally played the trailer.
It treated Chabuddy as the natural-history voice of billions of people and animals, complete with descriptions which nobody at the BBC’s wildlife unit would have approved.
Chris still thought the concept deserved another life somewhere.
Chris explained what he might have done without Radio 1
Listener Dylan asked what career Chris would have chosen if radio had not worked.
Chris said he had spent so long aiming specifically for Radio 1 that he had repeatedly delayed getting what his friends called a “proper job”.
He had done student radio, hospital radio, work experience and small commercial opportunities while trying to break through.
If radio had failed, he liked to think he might have worked with children.
He had previously enjoyed working in a primary-school after-school club.
He also had enormous respect for the emergency services because his brother was a paramedic.
The answer was another example of the Friday Extra Show becoming much more candid than its deliberately silly title suggested.
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