Lucienne Kim Flavell Interveiws Scott Mills

Lucienne Kim Flavell Interviews Scott Mills

A coach arrived at Three Bridges train station to take me to The Metropolitan Hotel in Brighton where I would meet BBC Radio One presenter Scott Mills. I fished out the crumpled piece of paper from my coat pocket to recall the questions I had decided to ask him and felt a little flutter of excitement.

A lady greeted me in reception and led me up a grand staircase to a private area where Scott Mills was sitting. I looked around the small rectangular room; it was decorated with peach coloured fleur-de-lis wallpaper. There was a dark oak meeting table and a stand holding refreshments. Scott approached me with a smile and a handshake.

The previous night he had completed an abseil down The Orbit for BBC's Children in Need.
"My legs were shaking, my palms were sweating, my mouth was dry, oh, it was awful." he said recollecting the experience,  "It was so windy. The wind and height were awful."

Scott has completed many challenges to raise money for Children in Need in the past, including trekking across the Kaisut Desert. Now he was concentrating on fundraising for St James & St Peters Hospice.  We had both raised money for this charity;  I was up for auction offering an hour of poetry mentoring.

I said, "How did you start out as a radio presenter?"

Scott said, "I used to live in Southampton. For my first job I worked at a local radio station doing the graveyard shift which was midnight to six am - I think . Yeah, that's right until six am. I was sixteen at the time.  Anyway I used to play songs, play more songs than speaking. There are truck drivers and nurses and all sorts of people who listen at that time and they are a dedicated audience."

I said, "How do you plan a radio show? I know you do prank calls and games with Chris."

Scott said, "When it comes to prank calls you have to plan it carefully, sometimes you get a good call in ten minutes, other times it takes three hours. It just depends. Then of course you have to get their permission to use it. Sometimes they say no and it's a shame because some of them are really good. We have editors but they do give you a lot of creative freedom."

I said, "You have interviewed many stars like Mark Wahlberg."

Scott said, "Say you were Beyonce, I would make sure I write the questions. There is nothing worse than someone else writing the questions and then you read them like [confused face]."

I said, "What would you do if you were not a radio presenter?"

Scott said, "Even when I was a child I wanted to be one. I don't know what I would do; I have always done it."