The archive returned to one of the show’s greatest monuments
With Scott and Chris off for the week, the podcast returned to March 2016 and the official opening of the Scott Mills Bridge at Fleet Services on the M3.
Chris was dispatched to Hampshire while Scott remained in the studio.
The pedestrian bridge connecting the two sides of the services had been officially named after Scott following the show’s campaign to get things named in his honour.
Fleet had taken the occasion surprisingly seriously.
There was a balloon arch.
The plaque was hidden behind curtains.
Welcome Break staff were waiting for a ceremony.
Chris described a huge sense of anticipation, although when Scott asked whether a crowd was building, the truthful answer was initially that almost nobody was there yet.
The ceremony had its own dramatic soundtrack
The team had produced special opening music to make an ordinary motorway footbridge sound like the launch of an Olympic Games.
Scott pressed play and heard a huge voice announce the opening ceremony live from Fleet Services.
Listeners driving along the M3 were encouraged to stop.
One complained that Scott’s bridge was overshadowing his 21st birthday.
Another wanted to know whether it would be covered in flashing fairy lights.
It was not.
It did, however, have the balloon arch.
Chris tried to eat his way around Fleet
With hours to fill before the unveiling, Chris embraced life at the services.
He ordered fried chicken and treated Fleet as though he had been sent to a holiday resort.
Then he headed towards the lorry parking area for a new sporting event: the Horn Dash.
Chris had 90 seconds to run past as many lorries as possible making the universal arm-pulling gesture asking drivers to sound their horns.
The truckers were remarkably cooperative.
By the end, Chris had persuaded 15 lorries to sound their horns in 90 seconds.
Scott immediately suggested this must be some kind of world record.
Fleet even produced food with Scott’s face on it
As the ceremony approached, the services became more elaborate.
A pizza appeared decorated to resemble Scott.
More people gathered.
Rod McKie, the chief executive of Welcome Break, joined Chris beside the plaque.
Scott listened from the studio as the moment finally arrived.
Chris compared Fleet Services with the wonders of the ancient world
Chris’s opening speech was deliberately enormous.
He talked about the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus, the Temple of Artemis, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria.
Then he announced that an eighth wonder was being added to the list:
The Scott Mills Bridge.
Chris said that just as Scott bridged the gap between programmes on Radio 1, he would now connect the two sides of Fleet Services.
Millions of motorists, he predicted, would either drive beneath Scott or courageously walk across him.
The curtains were pulled away.
The plaque was revealed.
Scott officially had a bridge.
For a show that had spent years celebrating motorway services, there could hardly have been a more appropriate honour.
COMMENTS