Karaoke after Halloween
Scott’s Halloween party had ended with late-night karaoke alongside Hailee Steinfeld. The fancy dress made celebrity identification unusually difficult: Chris initially wondered whether Scott had simply met somebody dressed as Hailee, while another guest had arrived as University Challenge contestant Ted Loveday, complete with a desk and a speech bubble reading “hapax legomenon”.
The party also offered another excuse to revisit Geraint Thomas’s exceptionally wet Innuendo Bingo. Scott and Chris were still enjoying the sight of the professional cyclist towering over Chris on his tiny bicycle, although Halloween itself would soon leave a more mysterious souvenir in Scott’s house.
A relationship that never started
Chris asked for help with a friend who visited the same coffee shop near his workplace every morning and fancied one of the baristas. Their conversations had never moved beyond ordering coffee, but when she disappeared from work he asked another employee where she had gone. She was travelling, leaving him behaving as though a genuine relationship had ended.
Listeners recognised the feeling. One missed a man whenever he failed to appear on her train, while Laura had fancied a colleague for three years without speaking to him and was devastated when he left. The discussion established that people could grieve for an imagined future even when the other person barely knew they existed.
Aaron becomes a Teen Hero
Ahead of the Radio 1 Teen Awards, Scott introduced 16-year-old Aaron as the second Teen Hero of 2015. Aaron had experienced anxiety and depression connected with gender dysphoria, then used his YouTube channel to explain his feelings and help other young people understand their own identities.
His openness had already encouraged a younger pupil at his school to talk about being transgender. Scott praised the courage required to share something so personal publicly and explained that Aaron would receive his award at the weekend’s ceremony.
Preparing for Blackpool Tower
Chris investigated Scott’s training for the 400-foot Children in Need abseil down Blackpool Tower. Scott had practised at a much lower height but remained most frightened by the first backwards step over the edge. The knowledge that Sir Terry Wogan had personally set the challenge still made withdrawal impossible.
Greg James played Real or No Real. A company really did send customers’ cuddly toys on holidays and return them with sightseeing photographs. Research had also found that synchronised dancing, including Gangnam Style, could increase pain tolerance. Neither fact made Scott’s approaching abseil feel more appealing.
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