Friday Extra Show: Scott had only managed half a week
Extra podcast edition
Chris began by pointing out that Scott had been expected back on Monday.
Illness delayed him until Wednesday.
Scott had jokingly diagnosed himself with a tropical disease based on a couple of symptoms, although listeners with actual experience quickly told him he would not be sitting happily at Radio 1 if that diagnosis were correct.
Chris had therefore spent more time presenting with other people before the usual partnership finally returned.
The personalised candle call got another outing
The Friday show replayed one of the best bits Chris had made while Scott was away.
The premise was to see how much text a Christmas-gift company would personalise.
A candle shop became the target.
Chris wanted a message long enough to require several candles.
The shop worker patiently took down an elaborate breakup statement beginning with a festive greeting and continuing through the end of a relationship.
Because the business specialised in Welsh gifts, the wording also had to be considered in Welsh.
Chris loved how committed customer service remained despite the increasingly inappropriate Christmas message.
The fragrance needed a final push
Scott and Chris were also still trying to get their homemade perfume finished before Christmas.
The project had already involved months of listener suggestions, a professional perfumer, market research and an extraordinarily bad pitch to Claude Littner.
The Friday show treated the whole thing like a product launch which had accidentally become serious.
François the Nose was due back with the finished fragrance.
The archive basement produced Scott’s bridge
Chris had started using the Extra Show to revisit old audio.
He joked about entering the archive basement at Scott’s house and finding tapes from previous years.
This week’s selection was one of the show’s most overblown public events: the opening of the Scott Mills Bridge at Fleet Services.
The service-station footbridge had been renamed for Scott as part of a Radio 1 stunt.
The ceremony was treated with the pomp normally reserved for a major civic landmark.
There was a plaque.
There were listeners visiting.
There were speeches.
The person conducting the ceremony compared the bridge with the wonders of the ancient world and announced that Scott would now connect the two sides of the service station just as he connected different parts of Radio 1.
One particularly memorable line celebrated millions of people being able to “go through” or “under” Scott.
The bridge later burned down
The most perfect detail came after all that ceremonial grandeur.
The bridge was later damaged by fire and had to be rebuilt.
Chris understood the symbolism.
Radio 1 had gone to extraordinary lengths to present a motorway-services walkway as a monument for eternity.
Reality almost immediately intervened.
The Friday Extra Show preserved the whole ridiculous day as one of the programme’s defining archive moments.
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