Friday Extra Show: the mouse had become official BBC business
Extra podcast edition
The Live Lounge Mouse had moved beyond Radio 1 gossip.
There was now an official email.
Chris read out the message sent to staff explaining that vermin had been sighted on the eighth floor.
Bait had been laid.
More would be placed beneath the raised flooring.
Staff were asked to report sightings so facilities could track where the animal was moving.
Then came the most important clarification:
they were mice, not rats.
The email even ended with a joke about not getting caught in the trap.
Chris loved how formal the communication sounded about an animal which had become a recurring character on the podcast.
He decided the Extra Show should continue covering the story like a weekly true-crime series.
The ultimate ambition was somehow to get the mouse itself on the podcast.
Layla reviewed her extraordinary first fortnight
Chris also caught up with intern Layla.
Her Radio 1 placement had already included being sniffed by François the Nose.
Then, while Chris was away, she had played ukulele in front of Bastille and Marshmello.
Layla admitted it was surreal.
She had first played Bastille on radio years earlier as a fan.
Now she was an intern performing “Pompeii” and “Happier” while the artists themselves judged her with emoji cards.
Chris was delighted by how quickly the internship had become ridiculous.
He told Layla there was still time for the programme to make her do something even stranger.
She appeared worryingly willing.
Wednesday’s podcast contained something nobody meant to publish
The Extra Show also investigated a production mistake.
At the end of Wednesday’s daily podcast, listeners had heard Scott, Chris and the team talking normally after the part which was supposed to be included.
The conversation was never intended for release.
It was just studio chatter.
The team had not realised it was still attached to the podcast.
Chris was slightly horrified by the possibilities.
They could easily have been complaining about somebody, discussing confidential plans or saying something impossible to broadcast.
Fortunately, the accidental audio mostly contained nonsense.
The incident still demonstrated how much trust existed in the editing process.
One missed cut could suddenly let thousands of listeners hear the room after everybody thought the programme was over.
The Friday show kept becoming an unofficial Radio 1 help desk
Listener questions ranged from how the show worked to the strange things people sent corporate social-media accounts.
One caller who worked for a hotel chain described receiving somebody’s entire Sri Lanka holiday photo collection despite having no previous relationship with them.
The connection was apparently simply that the same hotel brand existed there.
The caller enthusiastically replied.
The stranger then asked whether they could be friends.
Chris immediately recognised the same phenomenon he had experienced while organising Dugs’s stag do.
The moment people believed you were responsible for something, they started asking questions no normal person would expect you to answer.
COMMENTS