Jordan North was in
Scott was away, so Jordan North joined Chris.
The programme immediately sounded slightly different.
Jordan knew the Scott Mills format well enough to slot in.
He also brought exactly the kind of personal stories Chris liked encouraging.
The pair returned to listener Greg, who had recently begun seeing somebody and faced an early relationship test.
He had been invited to a large family birthday party.
Greg bottled the family party
Scott and Chris had previously advised Greg to go.
Meet the family.
Do not drink too much.
Avoid doing anything memorable with the grandmother.
Greg got ready.
He prepared to leave.
Then, at almost the last minute, he panicked and stayed home.
There was another complication.
The woman he was seeing had discovered Greg had been discussing the entire dilemma on Radio 1.
Greg initially tried denying it.
That was difficult when he had used his actual name on national radio.
Chris thought the radio appearance might have created more trouble than attending the party ever would.
Mind Blown arrived
The show then introduced Mind Blown.
The premise was simple.
Find facts strange enough to make Scott, Chris, Jordan or the listeners stop and say:
“Mind blown.”
The collection included claims about animals, bodies and the natural world.
Monkeys could go bald with age.
A blue whale’s heartbeat could be heard from an extraordinary distance.
Cows were said to have regional differences in their calls.
The last claim would become important later in the week.
Radio 1 would try to test it.
Ask Me Anything met Amanda Foster
The mystery guest was Amanda Foster, a professional stunt double.
Her list of credits immediately changed the tone.
Bond.
Star Wars.
Harry Potter.
Fast & Furious.
Transformers.
Scott and Chris had spoken to unusual professionals before.
Amanda had worked inside some of the biggest film franchises in the world.
She had doubled Beyoncé
Asked for one of the most famous people she had doubled, Amanda supplied an extraordinary answer.
Beyoncé.
The job was connected with a Pepsi commercial involving Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez and David Beckham.
Amanda had also worked as a double for performers including Whoopi Goldberg.
Jordan began looking through her credits and finding increasingly recognisable titles.
Falling down stairs took practice
Amanda explained that stunt work involved far more preparation than simply being willing to hurt yourself.
She had practised falls.
At one stage in training, she and a friend went to concrete steps around a university park so Amanda could practise throwing herself down them safely.
People nearby naturally thought something had gone badly wrong.
Amanda treated it as training.
Chris loved the contrast.
The finished film might show a dramatic fall lasting seconds.
The person performing it could have spent years learning how not to get seriously injured.
Ask Me Anything had levelled up again
The feature had recently surprised Scott and Chris with Joe Gomez.
Now it had produced somebody who could say, almost casually, that she had been Beyoncé when the camera needed somebody else to take the physical risk.
Jordan decided the bar for future mystery guests was becoming unreasonably high.
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