Scott and Chris go to Radio 2
Children in Need took Scott and Chris across to Radio 2, where they joined Ken Bruce and helped with pledge and request calls. Chris was particularly excited: Auntie Trees was a Ken Bruce listener, so simply being on the programme carried family significance.
The Radio 2 machinery took some learning. Chris struggled with the phone system badly enough to lose a caller, but recovered to speak to Michael, who donated £10 and requested Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”. Pet dedications and travel information gave them a taste of a rather different broadcasting rhythm, while Scott enjoyed watching Chris try to fit into it.
Ylvis and the accidental Fox
Bård and Vegard Ylvisåker arrived with fox masks but not the full costumes, which were in the dry cleaners after getting predictably sweaty on tour. They were due to perform for Children in Need later, and “The Fox” had now reached the top 10 in dozens of countries and accumulated more than 200 million views.
They explained that the song began almost as an experiment in making something bad. Norwegian producers Stargate owed them a favour after taking part in a documentary, and the brothers had a stuffed fox in their office whose tail had already been bent and damaged. The fox became the subject, Ylvis wrote the melody and lyrics, and Stargate supplied the production.
The scale of the response had not been planned. A children’s book was already in development, while songs such as “Stonehenge” showed that Ylvis had plenty of other elaborate musical jokes. They contrasted shy Norwegian foxes with the far bolder urban animals British listeners described, and Scott played them some listener-supplied fox noises for comparison.
Set Blue Free
Chris had been inspired by Bastille’s “Of the Night” to make a mash-up of Eiffel 65’s “Blue” and N-Trance’s “Set You Free”. He presented “Set Blue Free” to Ylvis, hoping two men with a worldwide comedy-music hit would appreciate the idea.
Their response was polite rather than ecstatic. The show spent time afterwards analysing just how unimpressed they had looked, while a possible offer of Stargate’s phone number did little to establish whether Chris had found his own route to international production success.
The campaign for Pig Beach
Chris had also become fixated on Pig Beach in the Bahamas, where feral pigs swim out into the water. A listener who had visited helped confirm that the place was real, which encouraged Chris to propose an entire Radio 1 “Pig Weekend” from the island.
He imagined twinning the show with Pig Beach and broadcasting among swimming pigs. Management had not shown any obvious desire to send them to the Bahamas, but that did nothing to reduce his enthusiasm. By the end of the programme, Pig Beach had become a destination, a campaign and a recurring piece of unfinished Radio 1 business.
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