Chris had been drunk-DMing again
The show finally returned to a subject teased earlier in the week: Chris sending people supportive messages after a few drinks.
His drunk messaging was not aggressive.
It was almost aggressively nice.
On one recent night he had contacted producer and DJ Fred again.., telling him how talented he was and praising “Turn On the Lights again..” as an anthem.
Fred replied with appreciative emojis.
The same night, Chris messaged BBC political editor Chris Mason to tell him how good *Newscast* was.
Mason responded warmly and congratulated him on his own news.
Another previous message had gone to rugby player Joe Marler, with Chris announcing how much he loved what Joe was doing.
Joe’s reply asked the obvious question.
Was he high?
The timestamps made the answer slightly easier to understand.
Pete Tong recreated an ancient Radio 1 skill
One of the most requested archive moments involved Pete Tong reading the Radio 1 website address aloud in the mid-1990s.
At the time, getting online genuinely required presenters to say things such as “HTTP colon forward slash forward slash” followed by an exhausting chain of folders and filenames.
The original clip had become funny simply because the internet no longer sounded like that.
So the show contacted Pete and asked him to do it again.
He joined from Ibiza, broadcasting from a makeshift setup in a wardrobe while wearing swimming trunks.
The longest website in the world got the Pete Tong treatment
Listeners had supplied deliberately awful web addresses for him.
One incorporated the famously long Welsh place name Llanfairpwllgwyngyll….
Another was simply an absurd chain claiming to be the world’s longest domain name.
A third was an invented Pete Tong fan-club address containing folders, hyphens and unnecessary detail.
Pete attacked each one with the same authoritative delivery he had used decades earlier.
The joke was wonderfully simple.
A broadcasting skill made necessary by the early internet had become completely ridiculous nostalgia.
Secret Bake Off came back from 2014
The archive preview then returned to Secret Bake Off.
At the height of *The Great British Bake Off*, the show had sent Chris into cafés and bakeries to assess their cakes in the style of Paul Hollywood.
The crucial difference was that the businesses had not asked to be judged.
Chris would buy something, examine it with absurd seriousness and deliver his verdict while the staff tried to understand why a Radio 1 presenter was behaving like a television baking judge.
It was another feature that sounded impossible to explain without playing the audio.
Bangers became increasingly sentimental
With the final month approaching, Bangers choices were gaining extra weight.
Chris increasingly used the slot to nominate songs he wanted to hear on Radio 1 while he still had the opportunity.
On this show he offered My Chemical Romance’s “Welcome to the Black Parade”.
The listener initially seemed likely to choose Scott, then switched to Chris.
Scott suspected the mention of angry fans with placards may have influenced the decision.
The final July quiz looked back through number ones
Producer Amy’s last quiz of the week included strange celebrity headlines and records that had been number one on the same date in previous years.
The songs included Rixton’s “Me and My Broken Heart”, La Roux’s “Bulletproof” and James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful”.
Scott and Chris ended up defending James Blunt from the dismissive way his music had often been treated, pointing out both his success and his famously sharp social-media persona.
July ended with the show fully entering farewell mode.
Old features were returning, listeners were supplying memories, celebrities were being recruited for final appearances and even a 1995 website address had become part of the goodbye.
August was now the final month.
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