Scott returned from Las Vegas
Scott was back after his week away and immediately rejected the show’s old “Daddy’s home” welcome.
He had been in Las Vegas, including seeing Lady Gaga perform close enough for her to be dangling above his head.
The time difference had also meant Chris received Scott’s late-night messages in the middle of the UK morning.
The trip ended less glamorously at Heathrow.
Scott’s boyfriend was Welsh, and the family ended up crowded around a small iPhone while waiting more than an hour for luggage and watching Wales go out of the Rugby World Cup.
Scott returned to Radio 1 ready for a new week.
Chris announced that winter had arrived.
That meant cuffing season.
Ask Me Anything found dog surfing
Monday’s mystery guest was James Clark, introduced as a two-time UK dog-surfing champion.
Scott initially assumed this meant somebody surfing while holding a dog.
James explained that the dog could actually stand on the board, either surfing with its owner or, depending on conditions and the competition, effectively riding on its own.
For a normal shared run, the dog went towards the front of the board and the human paddled from behind.
The dogs were not strapped down.
They wore life jackets.
James said the sport had become a much bigger event in the United States and had only started developing more recently in Britain.
California took dog surfing very seriously
Scott found information about a California dog-surfing contest involving more than 80 dogs.
He and Chris became completely absorbed in photographs of dogs standing on surfboards, sometimes even wearing sunglasses.
James invited them to become judges at a future event.
The pair remembered the time they had been unexpectedly asked to judge the best-turned-out horse at a racecourse.
Neither had been qualified then.
They would be no more qualified to assess competitive dog surfing.
That had never stopped them before.
Brexit left a deadline-shaped hole
The programme then turned to something entirely different.
The Brexit deadline which had been expected later that week had moved again.
Chris decided Thursday therefore needed a replacement deadline.
Winter coats were out.
Christmas was approaching.
Single people were entering the period the show called cuffing season.
Chris announced:
“I’m triggering Article 69.”
The mock-political language continued.
Somebody would leave the single market.
Radio 1 would aim to create a strong and stable relationship.
The target deadline was Christmas.
Emily wanted company rather than just cuddles
The show had received hundreds of responses and selected Emily from Aberdeen.
Emily said she had been single since February.
Aberdeen’s dating pool felt small because so many people worked in the same industries and seemed to know one another.
She wanted somebody to share adventures, coffee and ordinary life with.
Her preferred man was stocky, often slightly childish and, importantly, comfortable with an independent woman.
Emily also revealed one unusually strict food rule.
Food on her plate had to remain separate unless it was genuinely meant to be mixed.
She wanted to control the proportions on each forkful herself.
Scott and Chris realised any potential boyfriend needed to understand both Emily and plate geography.
Bring on the boys
Applicants immediately began joining the show.
They had only a few days to narrow the field and arrange a date.
Chris wanted the whole thing done by Thursday.
Scott liked the ambition.
The programme had not successfully created many long-term couples before.
Article 69 would simply ignore that evidence and try again.
COMMENTS