Friday Extra Show: Chris forgot it existed
Extra podcast edition
Producer Will rang Chris with a problem.
The Friday Extra Show needed recording.
Chris had completely forgotten.
He was not going to reach Radio 1 in time.
The solution was appropriately loose.
Record the introduction by phone and raid the archive.
Chris joked that this might be the laziest podcast they had ever made.
Instead of pretending there was a polished new programme, they openly chose April 2016 and searched for memorable material.
Scott and Chris judged horses at Haydock
One archive story came from a DJ booking at Haydock Racecourse.
Before the music began, Scott and Chris were unexpectedly asked to judge a best-turned-out horse competition.
They had no expertise.
The task involved watching horses being walked around and deciding which looked best presented.
Chris compared it with a dog show.
The only difference was that the animals were considerably larger and the judges knew much less about what they were supposed to inspect.
A viral bear encounter returned
The archive also brought back a famous online clip of a man frightening away an approaching bear by shouting at it.
Scott and Chris had previously been fascinated by how effective the yelling appeared to be.
The bear backed away.
The programme had then asked what ordinary people would actually do if confronted by a large animal.
The sensible answer was rarely the one which made the best radio.
Animal language became increasingly risky
The 2016 selections also included material involving horses and a black cockerel which repeatedly pushed the Friday podcast into phrases the weekday programme would have handled more cautiously.
Chris enjoyed the fact the archive could produce an entire theme without anybody planning it.
Horses.
Bears.
Cocks.
The title effectively wrote itself.
The Extra Show embraced its archive role
The episode confirmed another purpose for Friday Extra.
It did not always need a fresh investigation or listener follow-up.
The programme had years of material which newer podcast listeners had never heard.
Chris and Will could choose a month, open the archive and rediscover bits even the presenters themselves had forgotten.
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