Chris was missing
Chris was away filming, so Scott recruited Radio 1 newcomers Ricky, Melvin and Charlie across the afternoon.
Charlie admitted she listened to Scott and Chris every day and found it strange suddenly being allowed to sit on the other side of the microphone.
Scott immediately made her discuss one of the show’s least comfortable features.
Where Do You Think They Were?
Charlie said she was close to her parents but had absolutely no interest in hearing the details of her own conception.
That was exactly why she understood what the callers were putting themselves through.
Melvin joined a Great Escape
Melvin became involved in another of the show’s Great Escapes, stories from people who needed to leave a romantic or social situation as quickly and discreetly as possible.
Scott enjoyed getting new presenters involved because they had not heard years of increasingly elaborate excuses and escape plans.
The feature could still surprise them.
Ricky tried to steal Bangers
With Chris absent, Ricky stepped into Bangers.
Scott expected listeners to remain loyal to the established presenter.
That confidence lasted only until the competing songs actually played.
The game had never cared about seniority.
Listeners chose the track they liked.
Scott discovered a Radio 1 newcomer could threaten his Bangers record just as effectively as Chris.
The conception story involved a wedding
The main Where Do You Think They Were? story began around a family wedding.
The listener’s parents had been attending the celebrations and became impatient during the gap between daytime and evening events.
They returned home.
The place where the story eventually led was not a bed.
It was a distinctive blue carpet or shagpile.
The parent telling the story remembered the floor clearly enough for Scott to build the entire reconstruction around it.
The couple then returned to the wedding later.
The listener now knew that while everybody else was waiting for the evening reception, their parents had used the break considerably more productively.
Blue carpet became impossible to forget
Scott asked whether the family still owned the carpet.
The answer was effectively no, although the surface remained vivid in the parent’s memory.
The feature had already produced bridges, cars, boats, aircraft and living-room furniture.
April added a wedding-day blue shagpile.
Charlie had begun the show saying she never wanted this information from her own parents.
Nothing in the story changed her mind.
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