Archive special: season two began at university
24 Years at the Tap End archive edition
The final podcast of 2018 returned to Chris’s 18th year at the Tap End and his first week at Southampton University.
The archive episode also marked the start of a newer Tap End “season”, complete with a fresh theme tune Chris had commissioned.
Scott thought the music sounded unexpectedly sweet and folk-like, closer to the opening of a television family comedy than the soundtrack to stories about Chris’s university behaviour.
Then the story began.
Chris was still adjusting to halls
Chris had barely settled into university.
Glen Eyre Halls still felt unfamiliar.
He was getting used to sharing accommodation and living around strangers.
One flatmate provided a particularly memorable introduction to communal life.
Chris walked into the room and found him naked.
That would already have been awkward.
Then Chris noticed the sock.
It was Chris’s sock
The flatmate was wearing one of Chris’s socks.
Not on his foot.
Chris’s first reaction was disbelief.
His second was practical annoyance.
He did not have many socks.
The fact a flatmate had selected one of them for a private activity meant it was not going back into normal circulation.
Scott and the team spent far too long trying to establish how the sock had been worn, how well it had fitted and why anybody would choose somebody else’s laundry for the purpose.
Chris insisted the shortage of socks remained one of the most upsetting parts of the story.
University social life moved quickly
The chapter then progressed into the rapid series of parties and themed nights which made up Chris’s first weeks at Southampton.
Toga fancy dress became part of the story.
Chris learned the basic rule that a toga should probably be worn with underwear underneath.
He did not always follow that rule.
One chaotic night eventually placed him on stage with almost nothing on except a laurel wreath and flip-flops.
The experience was intimidating for somebody who had only been at university for days.
It was also exactly the sort of situation future Tap End chapters would repeatedly uncover.
Two rules for university
Chris ended the story with lessons.
Always wear underwear under a toga.
And never allow somebody to grab your “pinky”, the euphemistic detail which had emerged from the chaos of the night.
Scott was delighted to have Tap End back.
The archive week had gone from Halloween to sunscreen, Kavos, Germany and Chris’s first university adventures.
The final message announced that the show itself would now take a proper break.
Scott and Chris would return to Radio 1 on 7 January 2019.
With that, the 2018 transcript archive came to an end.
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