Source some Chinese food immediately
Chris asked listeners to obtain Chinese food within 20 minutes for an experiment he refused to explain. It was early afternoon, many people had already committed to sandwiches and ordering a takeaway at work risked annoying everybody nearby, but noodles, leftovers and even chow-mein-flavoured Pot Noodles were accepted.
The reason was an Oxford University study suggesting that sound could change taste. Chris claimed that playing Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space”, Sia and MNEK’s “Never Forget You” could make inexpensive Chinese or Indian food seem closer to restaurant quality. The show synchronised listeners across the country and began the soundtrack while everybody ate.
Some reported that Singapore noodles and even a prawn-mayonnaise sandwich improved. John’s sweet-and-sour pork tasted worse because it had gone cold during the long preparation. Scott stressed that nobody had promised the music would heat it back up.
Countdown rituals
The annual calendar was taking shape. Relationship Transfer Deadline Day would be the following Wednesday, while Magnus Carlsson’s “Wrap Myself in Paper” had to be played on 17 December because its lyric said Christmas was “in a week and a day”. Scott and Chris also agreed to postpone their stressful joint shopping trip until it could become genuinely stressful.
Bamboleo Wednesday included a request for Len Goodman and Arlene Phillips, although Scott argued that the gap should not become entirely dependent on innuendo. The programme also replayed part of Felicia’s singing lesson for Chris and prepared for the return of her extraordinary version of “Fairytale of New York”.
Barbara Windsor joined Real or No Real. A claim that one in ten workers knew somebody disciplined after a staff Christmas party was judged carefully after memories of previous Radio 1 celebrations, but the wording was too broad and the specific fact was not real.
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