This month the Shipping Forecast, the lullaby for troubled sleepers everywhere, celebrated its 100th birthday. [1]
The Shipping Forecast is my second favourite insomnia-busting soundtrack (my first choice will always be thunderstorms).
Whilst commonly noted as now being quite unnecessary due to the multiple other means of obtaining forecasts, it is much loved regardless. Widely described as: a staple cosy bedtime ritual; a prayer; and a trance-inducing and/or soothing spell for the sleepless.
“Charlie Connelly [author of Attention All Shipping: A Journey Round the Shipping Forecast], has pointed to its role in the private rituals of hearth and bedroom, its ‘soothing, homely aspect’, ‘cosily reassuring’ as listeners slough-off the daily accretions of busy, stressful lives. A newspaper critic has written of its regular ‘promise’ of hearing about a gale at sea with ‘the bed-clothes pulled high and the radio turned low’.” [2]
Poet Carol Ann Duffy christened it ‘the radio’s prayer’. [3]
“Darkness outside. Inside, the radio’s prayer –
Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.”
Beloved by poets [4], the Shipping Forecast is itself a poem. (And sailors everywhere roll their eyes).
“Detached from its practical objective, the shipping forecast becomes everyday poetry, appreciated for its aesthetic qualities that include repetitive rhythm, elliptical expression, evocative place-names, and meteorological jargon.”
“the loss of meaning produced by the extremely elliptical and repetitive nature of the shipping forecast can have a soothing or even sedative effect”. [5]
And long-play compilations of broadcasts are available everywhere for you to fall asleep to.
The Shipping Forecast read by Peter Jefferson (oft cited as the ‘voice’ of the Shipping Forecast), 6 hours’ worth is available here: https://lnkd.in/gTDVgcrP
Random Shipping Forecast, a Spotify station:
https://lnkd.in/gnfm2hwt
And last, but not least, the BBC’s Sleeping Forecast, “A unique journey to dreamland, mixing instrumental music and Radio 4’s Shipping Forecast.”
https://lnkd.in/g9Mqtv-n
A short history of the Shipping Forecast from 99% Invisible is available to listen to here here:
https://lnkd.in/gjrPAR8y
[2] Hendry, D. Listening in the Dark: Night-time radio and a ‘deep history’ of media https://lnkd.in/gw56MbAP
[3] Prayer by Carol Ann Duffy https://lnkd.in/gXKwMuPe
[4] Simon Armitage has an anthology entitled Sandettie Light Vessel Automatic https://lnkd.in/g-7DBYhH, which coincidently is my fave name ever! Don’t Google image search it, it is just a red boat 😦
[5] Nyqvist, S. Spaces of Longing and Belonging, 2019 https://lnkd.in/gc_Dv48C
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