© 2010 Cowdray Hunt Branch of the Pony Club
Ollie. Well, what can you say?!
Since Chris Evans started doing the Breakfast Show on Radio 2, Ollie has been fascinated by the "What Are You Doing For The First Time Today?" feature and has even come up with suggestions for himself but never actually phoned in. Anyway, the Friday before the Riding & Road Safety Course, we realised that it might be interesting enough to get a mention. We phoned in and, to our amazement, got straight through. The researcher obviously thought it sounded like fun and said we might get a call back in a few minutes. We did and Ollie proudly told Chris Evans that he was going on the course that evening.
We thought it would be nice to send Chris some pictures of Ollie doing the course, complete with his oversized hi-vis vest. I would just like to point out, in my defence at what Ollie was later to tell 8 million people, that I had bought Josh & Ollie only two bits of high visibility stuff each (a hat band and a bridle set) because I knew that we already owned vests. Also, the whole thing having been sprung on me at fairly short notice on the last day of Junior Camp, I didn't have an enormous amount of money on me at the time. I should also mention that Ollie has an annoying knack of remembering little details like that, while conveniently forgetting the context. I digress. In the end, we borrowed a couple of vests from his Grandad's yard; a) because they were already grubby and b) Kate didn't know our even larger ones were actually in the car all the time!
We sent a couple of lovely pictures in to the show on Sunday evening and then, on Monday morning, the phone rang as expected for Ollie to report back to the world on how the course had gone. Kate and I were hiding in the bedroom at this point so that we could listen to the radio while Ollie was on. They discussed what he had learnt and the similarities between looking all round on a horse to "lifesavers" on a motorbike. He even managed to mention Cowdray Pony Club in his very first answer. Having seen our pictures, Chris asked about Ollie's horse, so Rags got a mention too. Then he got to the bit about the "hi-vis kaftan", and Ollie came out with his now infamous "we had to borrow it because we couldn't afford to buy one" line. Kate and I were literally crying with laughter! Anyway, at the end, Chris asked if Ollie would like a hi-vis vest of his own that actually fitted, to which Ollie delightedly answered "Yes please."
We didn't actually take it that seriously as a comment, but one of the team phoned later for our address and Ollie's size. Today, a package arrived for Ollie from the BBC. A sensible sized, yellow, perfectly normal vest, which was pretty much what we were expecting. AND a bright orange, Radio 2 branded vest, personalised with Ollie's name and other messages. To say Ollie is chuffed is putting it mildly. He thinks it is fantastic and, I have to say, so do we. It was a really personal gift and totally above and beyond what he was expecting. He is torn between wearing it everywhere and sealing it up so it stays new forever.
Luckily, Kate kicked me about 10 minutes before the phone call, so I was able to record it for posterity.
A radio star in the making!
Ollie Howlett on The Chris Evans Show on Radio 2
Click on radio to hear it!!