Opening night in Edinburgh
The team broadcast from the Pleasance courtyard before the first performance of Mills: The Musical.
They had rehearsed from early morning and emerged from the theatre surprised to find daylight. Members of Unofficial Mills had already arrived with a banner and were waiting for the show.
The team explained the atmosphere of the Edinburgh Fringe, where almost any room could become a venue and performers spent the day distributing flyers.
Axis of Awesome
Australian musical-comedy group Axis of Awesome discussed returning to Edinburgh after losing money during their first Fringe run but gradually building an audience.
They advised Scott to distribute flyers and warned that shows often had only a few minutes to change sets between performances.
The group then performed its “Four Chord Song”, demonstrating how the same chord sequence appeared in dozens of pop hits. The medley moved through songs associated with Journey, James Blunt, the Black Eyed Peas, Alphaville, Mika, The Calling, Elton John, Maroon 5, John Denver, Lady Gaga, U2, Bob Marley and many others.
The Posh Radio 4 Lady and Chris Cox
The Posh Radio 4 Lady appeared live rather than only reading pre-recorded correspondence. She said she was equally excited to be on the programme and to appear in the musical.
Radio 1 colleague and mind-reader Chris Cox discussed performing at the Fringe and explained that venues included cellars, living rooms, hotels and even an upside-down purple cow.
He demonstrated a psychological prediction using photographs of Radio 1 presenters. Beccy freely selected Casualty, only for written instructions to reveal that this had been the predicted choice.
Dear Scott
Listeners asked whether the Posh Radio 4 Lady had a real name, whether Beccy removed her clothes in the musical and whether merchandise such as hats and mugs would be sold.
The Posh Radio 4 Lady said she had become so widely known by the title that even people who knew her real name now used “Posh”, “Posh Radio 4 Lady” or “PR4L”.
The team hinted that Beccy had a slightly risqué section in the show but did not reveal the scene before opening night.
Oh, What’s Occurring?
Chappers was absent, so John — the actor playing him in the musical — competed as “fake Chappers”.
Two women walked along Stupid Street holding watermelons at chest height. Passers-by made ten “nice melons” remarks.
On Edinburgh’s Royal Mile, eight people were prompted with “Scott Mills”. Three responded with some version of “Danny Howard: The Musical”.
The final round counted how often Janet from the “Faggot family” said “oh” during a previous interview. She said it 17 times.
Fake Chappers won the game and received an enthusiastic response from listeners before making his stage debut that evening.
COMMENTS