The Freshers line survives its first weekend
Scott returned on Monday delighted that students had actually used his new check-in line. Not every recording was broadcastable, and not everybody who called was even a student, but enough freshers had understood the assignment to reassure him that university had not instantly removed Radio 1 from their lives.
Lizzie and Charlotte from the University of Essex became ideal callers. They left one relatively sober message on the way into town for their first night out, then checked in again in the early hours after returning with kebabs. The second call was considerably less coherent but contained exactly the sort of unnecessary food detail Scott wanted.
A Canadian student at the University of Ottawa checked in internationally and mentioned going to see One Direction’s This Is Us, giving Scott another opportunity to warn her about his tiny appearance. Other callers supplied names but almost no information, earning gentle criticism for failing the central purpose of a line designed to let Scott keep tabs on their lives.
Chris goes back to Southampton
Chris had spent the weekend DJing at his old university in Southampton, where a Made in Chelsea personality unexpectedly appeared at one of the nights. He then decided, for no particularly good reason, to take a ferry to the Isle of Wight the next day.
The weather was grey and cold. Chris got off the ferry, realised he had no plan for what to do on the island and came back. Scott wondered whether he had expected an entirely different world to materialise simply because he had crossed a stretch of water.
A bed on the train
The late Freshers gigs had left Chris exhausted. His morning train was usually so busy that getting a seat required serious effort, and this time he wanted to lie down.
He found an empty lower section of a luggage rack, crawled into it and discovered that, although cramped, it worked surprisingly well as a tiny private compartment. Scott could not decide whether this was resourceful or another example of Chris behaving as though normal public-transport rules were merely suggestions.
The conversation expanded into sleep spasms. Chris had long believed the sudden jolt when drifting off meant his body had briefly thought he was dying. Listeners supplied the less alarming explanation of a hypnic jerk, while Scott liked the idea of turning sleeping Chris into a human game of Buckaroo by stacking objects on him until he woke up.
Dan and Phil return to Real or No Real
Dan and Phil joined for the Monday game. The round moved from celebrity food habits to Sam Smith, Example’s enthusiasm for a new microwave and the recurring fictional idea that Emma Bunton insisted on attaching “RSPB” to her name.
Example really had kept Twitter updated while waiting at home for a microwave delivery, proof for Scott that even successful pop stars sometimes remained at the level where somebody had to wait between broad delivery slots.
Dan and Phil also previewed a listener project around The Vamps’ upcoming Online Lounge performance, asking fans to film themselves miming instruments so their clips could be edited into the band footage.
By then Scott’s more immediate audience project was working perfectly. The freshers had gone out, stayed up far too late and, crucially, remembered to call him.
COMMENTS