As a former radio presenter and long time radio “anorak” I was interested to hear a short story over the weekend on BBC Radio 4 billed as “A continuity announcer veers drastically off course during a live broadcast of the Shipping Forecast”.
I like things based on being “behind the scenes” of radio (although often people get it wrong – like Alan Partridge doing live radio links with his head phones round his neck and not on his ears!)
In common with many people I enjoy the late night Shipping Forecast but without exactly knowing why.
Mark Damazer former Radio 4 Controller said:
“It scans poetically. It’s got a rhythm of its own. It’s eccentric, it’s unique, it’s English. It’s slightly mysterious because nobody knows where these places are.”
So I wonder – do I like it because it is a reminder of our great maritime history? Am I attracted to the soothing rhythm of the announcer’s incantation of sea areas and the expected weather in each? It’s a question explored in “Moderate to Poor. Occasionally Good” written and read by Eley Williams and which I heard on Saturday.
The idea is that the announcer starts the shipping forecast but then turns it into a message to her partner/lover. Initially it seems this is the response to an argument but it subsequently becomes clear that there is a more tragic dimension to the story.
My suspense of disbelief was struggling initially as I imagined someone would come into the studio to stop this major deviation from the script but Eley’s narrator/announcer covers this by explaining she has gaffer taped up the door – and having worked nights on the radio (though not at the Beeb) I know there often is not anyone else around anyway.
My other concern was that the reader sounded very much like the actor who plays Pip in The Archers which initially was confusing. However the story, with its clever use of the structural elements of the Shipping Forecast, drew me in as the narrative of the announcer and her partner developed and it became clear that their young child has drowned.
Eley is obviously a long standing listener to the Shipping Forecast, or has researched it well, as she throws in details to resonate with the long time Radio 4 listener – like when she details the sea areas in order and her partner’s thoughts on them and complains about “FitzRoy supplanting Finnisterre [I know!] which mean ends of the earth and therefore had all the poetry you could want”. I also liked the idea of “Rockall and Malin” as “two glamorous olympic in-line skaters”
I enjoyed the way little vignettes were progressively revealed to help the listener piece together the story. The narrative unfolded via the artificial structure of the Shipping Forecast’s usual words and phrases whilst adding additional meaning and commentary – and painted some vivid pictures in the imagination in the way that good stories and great radio should.
I listened to the end and then wondered about the wisdom of scheduling the story in the slot before the real Shipping Forecast – but in hindsight I suppose that time would be the obvious place to broadcast it.
You can hear the story for the couple of weeks on the BBC website – http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09nycml
although you will have to register or log in to hear it.
Chris Radley – Voice Over