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This is the cutest thing I have seen in weeks. For those outside the UK who are unfamiliar, the shipping forecast is the most British thing possible. A concise
by unfocussed_mike 5y ago
This is the cutest thing I have seen in weeks.
For those outside the UK who are unfamiliar, the shipping forecast is the most British thing possible. A concise forecast that reads as pure poetry, and before it, Sailing By:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFdas-kMF74 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFdas-kMF74
- toyg 5y agoBack in the days, there were (conspiracy) theories that it had been used, during the Cold War, to pass commands to British spies in the field.
- bpye 5y agoNot a ridiculous theory. Related are also “numbers stations” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station
- giobox 5y agoIt must have been literally half my life I fell asleep to Robin Lustig on The World Tonight followed by Book at Bedtime, Today in Parliament then Sailing By and the Shipping Forecast. A habit I picked up from my mother, this same sequence of programs (I've left out a few, I know) was broadcast every weeknight from 10pm on Radio 4 since seemingly the dawn of the time until I left the UK. I'm actually surprised I can fall asleep without hearing the Shipping Forecast now!
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- mellosouls 5y agoA concise forecast that reads as pure poetry, and before it, Sailing By Followed by the National Anthem to end the day's broadcast! It's really relaxing drifting off to sleep to the gentle tones of the forecast, but countered somewhat by the need afterwards to stand up in bed as the anthem is played.
- martyvis 5y agoI can imagine a few scruffy fisherman and a salty old seadog of a Captain ploughing out into the North Sea just after midnight on a thumpety-thumpety old boat, rocking and reeling, listening to this forecast, and then standing to "God save The Queen" each contemplating whether they will be able to return home at the end of the day.
- unfocussed_mike 5y agoYes -- the national anthem is a perversely rude awakening at that point!
- simonw 5y agoThey played the shipping forecast at the start of the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony and it set the scene perfectly for the rest of the show.
- cameronh90 5y agoAlso the excellent Blur song This Is a Low is based on the Shipping Forecast.
- unfocussed_mike 5y agoYep! Great song.