"Attention All Shipping..."

January 2, 2024 6:14 AM

The radio broadcast of the UK Shipping Forecast is one hundred years old. Previously (1), previously (2), previously (3), previously (4), previously (5).
posted by Major Clanger (11 comments total)

Weather is it? Naming of parts? In my lifetime, the Met Office renamed Finisterre as Fitzroy after Robert Fitzroy who was Captain of HMS "Darwin" Beagle among several other positions of responsibility. Etymology of the other areas. [cw: Substack, not the Nazi part . . . I think]. That link includes a map of further South sea areas including the real Finisterre which is a subset of Fitzroy.

But I came out this evening to slip Admiral Charles Beaufort (of the wind scale) into a green jersey because born Navan, Co Meath on 27th May 1774. Downloadable BeaufortScale.png
posted by BobTheScientist at 9:42 AM on January 2 [1 favorite]

A very dear British friend introduced me to the Shipping Forecast while showing me his favorite London sites. He found it akin to space music and liked trancing out to it.

I miss him.
posted by doctornemo at 10:55 AM on January 2 [2 favorites]

I listen to this nearly every night, leaping across the room to turn it off before they play the national anthem at close-down, It's a nice reminder that I'm living on an island. When my brother moved to Somerset I got him a T-shirt that read "moving westward, losing identity". I think he thought it was funny.
posted by Fuchsoid at 11:49 AM on January 2 [3 favorites]

And of course the obligatory Fran/Shipping Forecast scene from Black Books.
posted by BigHeartedGuy at 12:33 PM on January 2 [4 favorites]

I love the Shipping Forecast. So soothing, so familiar. Sometimes it really depends on the announcer, though.
posted by Kitteh at 1:39 PM on January 2 [1 favorite]

I think the most Radio 4 British thing to do is to love the shipping forecast. I remember first listening to it as a child, and having it explained to me what it was for. It is indeed hypnotic and I love it.
posted by plonkee at 1:52 PM on January 2

Came here to say,

"Frrraaan?"
posted by The otter lady at 3:31 PM on January 2 [1 favorite]

Less celebrated, more working class (perhaps), but no less strange: The football results at the end of Grandstand. For me, as a child in the 1970s, it was an eternity of agonising nonsense, waiting for Dr Who to come on on a Saturday evening, it was only in later years I recognised it as the concrete poetry it is. For some people, with their Pools coupon in front of them as they ate their tea from a tray, it meant the possibility of winning unimaginable riches (or, more likely, not winning anything at all).

I think it's beautiful that there's a football team called Queen of the South, though.
posted by Grangousier at 3:41 PM on January 2 [3 favorites]

I enjoyed this book, Attention All Shipping: A journey round the shipping forecast by Charlie Connolly. The author travels to each zone and has adventures.
posted by goo at 1:14 AM on January 3

Peter Jefferson, longtime voice of the Shipping Forecast, put out a book about it several years ago. He also narrates a sleep story in the Calm meditation app that describes the history of the Forecast and then gives a sample broadcast. It's terribly soothing.
posted by hanov3r at 11:37 AM on January 3

Music to go with this thread - The General Synopsis. I had linked to it in some of the previous threads, but the link has changed.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 1:24 PM on January 3