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:
A 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.
I 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.
It 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!
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