Unsettling more than evil....
A long time ago, I was at Uni in Brighton with a rather strange young man who I'll call Geoff. Nice enough guy, but a little odd (he carried a dead mouse around in his pocket at one time...) Like most students, Geoff used to frequent the local second hand shops, and one day he came back to College with an old Jim'll Fix It annual from about 10 years previous (I said he was odd). As he was looking through it he drew our attention to a section for letters from kids who had never had their 'Fix Its' granted, but who the publishers thought to include anyway; one was from a girl in Brighton with a rather distinctive last name, which Geoff commented on (I can't remember what, or what she asked for - something along the lines of driving in a limo with Kajagoogoo). No one thought any more about it. Then we found out what he had done....

He'd gone through the Brighton phonebook and found an entry for someone with the same distinctive surname; at this point I think he was just satisfying his curiosity, but something got the better of him. He rang the number, and when the woman answered he asked her if, as a young girl, she'd written into Jim'll Fix It? She said that yes, she had - Geoff then said he was ringing from the BBC. Jim'll Fix It was coming back on TV, and as part of their new series they were revisiting all the old Fix Its that never made it to air the first time round and granting the old wishes. Oh my god, said the woman, am I going to be on telly driving in a limo with Kajagoogoo? Yes, said Geoff, who could have left it at that. Instead, he formed a more complex plan.

He asked the woman if he could meet up with her to discuss her Fix It in more detail, do an interview for Look In magazine, that sort of thing, and suggested they convene at Brighton Pier the following day. She, of course, said yes. Now Geoff didn't look like your average BBC employee (dirty bleached blonde hair, lots of leather, dead mouse in pocket), so that evening he borrowed a smart suit and briefcase and the next morning cleaned himself up and toddled off to his meeting at the Pier.

The woman turned up with her mum, similarly excited; a newly-smartened Geoff, resplendent in his borrowed suit and tie, bought them both a cup of tea. He then told them that the next week, a car containing Jimmy Saville himself would be dispatched to East Sussex, complete with camera crew, to record the start of the lucky ladies' journey to the BBC studios where she would be met by Kajagoogoo or whatever, and her dream would come true. Her Fix It would be the cornerstone of the first show of the new series. She was to dress in all her finery and be ready to be picked up at 11am sharp next Tuesday. Then he took their photos (!!) and left. I still wonder what the BBC made of the phone call they inevitably got the following week, and what the woman and her mother must have thought as it slowly dawned on them what had happened...

Actually, thinking about it, that is pretty evil....
(MrsP, Thu 20 Dec 2007, 11:58, 3 replies)

Evil?
No...but I suspect Geoff probably needs some psychiatric care.

How wonderfully surreal.
( chickenlady b3ta's very own Elizabeth Taylor, Thu 20 Dec 2007, 12:07, closed)

Awww
Thats actually really mean!
(Guilt wants to get in your moist confines, Thu 20 Dec 2007, 12:21, closed)

.
Very bizarre, very evil, and uncomfortably funny...
(misanthrope is so adjective he's verbing nouns!, Thu 20 Dec 2007, 12:27, closed)