Shipping Forecast quiz
- Thread starter Glow worm
- Start date
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<squawk> Pieces of seven. Pieces of seven. Pieces of seven. Parroty error.Surely that would be pieces of 8/10
- Location
- Shrewsbury, Shropshire
5/10 and I even knew some of them.
mybike
Grumblin at Garmin on the Granny Gear
- Location
- Not 'emel 'empstead
You nearly made me spill my coffee - then I'd been after you for a new keyboard.
gbb
Legendary Member
- Location
- Peterborough
7/10
I always found the shipping forcasts interesting as a kid listening to SW radio I think.
The voice, the names seemed to catch your imagination.
I always found the shipping forcasts interesting as a kid listening to SW radio I think.
The voice, the names seemed to catch your imagination.
Apollonius
Guru
- Location
- South Staffordshire
Indeed. Poet Carol Ann Duffy thought so too.
Prayer – Carol Ann Duffy
Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer
utters itself. So, a woman will lift
her head from the sieve of her hands and stare
at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift.
Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth
enters our hearts, that small familiar pain;
then a man will stand stock-still, hearing his youth
in the distant Latin chanting of a train.
Pray for us now. Grade 1 piano scales
console the lodger looking out across
a Midlands town. Then dusk, and someone calls
a child’s name as though they named their loss.
Darkness outside. Inside, the radio’s prayer –
Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.
Carol Ann Duffy (1955-)
Prayer – Carol Ann Duffy
Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer
utters itself. So, a woman will lift
her head from the sieve of her hands and stare
at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift.
Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth
enters our hearts, that small familiar pain;
then a man will stand stock-still, hearing his youth
in the distant Latin chanting of a train.
Pray for us now. Grade 1 piano scales
console the lodger looking out across
a Midlands town. Then dusk, and someone calls
a child’s name as though they named their loss.
Darkness outside. Inside, the radio’s prayer –
Rockall. Malin. Dogger. Finisterre.
Carol Ann Duffy (1955-)
snorri
Legendary Member
- Location
- East coast, up a bit.
[QUOTE 3658412, member: 9609"]yes I protest aswll, this was the question I got wrong, pure trickery, Rockall is apparently not an Island but an Islet - what utter bollox, a silly play on words[/QUOTE]
Agreed! And where is there an island named Hebrides I ask?
It's outrageous I tell you, quite outrageous.
Agreed! And where is there an island named Hebrides I ask?
It's outrageous I tell you, quite outrageous.
deptfordmarmoset
Full time tea drinker
- Location
- Armonmy Way
So, did anyone listen to the programme about shipping songs today? http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05r401h
Years ago I heard a thing on the wireless, a soap opera inspired by the Shipping Forecast. Someone gets shot with Smith's Knoll Automatic. So a spot of idle googling turns up that it was written by Oliver Pritchett of the Daily Telegraph. And some kind soul out in the internet has reproduced something like it:
"It is one of those sagas about two great dynasties in Texas and the whole thing came to me about ten-to-six last Thursday evening. I know the precise time because I was listening to Radio Four. By the time the weather forecast came on at five-to-six I had the whole thing mapped out.
I'll give you a general synopsys. It is about two adjoining cattle ranches - North Utsire and South Utsire. North Utsire is the family home of the Tyne family and they have a heard of pedigree Sumburgh cattle. The patriarch of the family, living in a tastelessly furnished mansion, is old Dogger Tyne. He is rough and tough, has white hair and also blue eyes which he crinkles up meaningfully. He is widowed and has two daughters. The youngest is Lundy who is pert and tomboyish. The other daughter, Valenta, is quite different. She wears a lot of lip gloss and her lustrous head of hair is so heavily lacquered that it hardly moves when she goes out in a high wind - even Gale 8 at times.
Old Dogger Tyne loathes the Fisher family at South Utsire. The head of this family is Cromarty Fisher. He is fair, moderate and good. He has a senior ranch hand called Lewis whom he treats like a brother. Sometimes, however, he asserts his authority and kicks the butt of Lewis. Cromarty Fisher has a handsome son named Rockall who has a hyperactive Adam's Apple denoting sensitivity. O course, Rockall Fisher is in love with Lundy Tyne.
Why, you ask, do the Tyne hate the Fishers ? It goes back to an earlier generation when Viking Tyne was courting the wistful, romantic Faeroes Fisher, but the families would not let them marry. Poor Faroes went mad and threw herself off a cliff. The wind was Storm force 10 at the time. Viking died of grief. (All this can be seen in flashback.) Some folks say Faeroes secretly gave birth to a daughter called Hebrides. (She will turn up as a successful lawyer in Episode Fourteen.)
Other characters include Dogger Tyne.s sidekick, a sinister figure called Malin. He owns a fierce dog . a German Bight. He seldom speaks, just gives the odd, intermittent light scrowl.
Then there is the femme fatal, Shannon Fastnet, who is in love with Rockall Fisher but who knows it is hopeless. She drives her scarlet Portland convertible too fast and she goes to the bars in the nearby town of Biscay where she drinks too many Bell Rock cocktails.
You will soon be seeing the whole drama on your TV screens and I don't want to spoil the plot for you. I will just mention one marvellously dramatic moment. Young Lundy Tyne is being blackmailed by the evil Malin and finally she can take no more. She pulls out a Smiths Knoll Automatic and shoots at him. Malin just laughs in his sinister way. `Missed,. he sneers. `Three miles..."
"It is one of those sagas about two great dynasties in Texas and the whole thing came to me about ten-to-six last Thursday evening. I know the precise time because I was listening to Radio Four. By the time the weather forecast came on at five-to-six I had the whole thing mapped out.
I'll give you a general synopsys. It is about two adjoining cattle ranches - North Utsire and South Utsire. North Utsire is the family home of the Tyne family and they have a heard of pedigree Sumburgh cattle. The patriarch of the family, living in a tastelessly furnished mansion, is old Dogger Tyne. He is rough and tough, has white hair and also blue eyes which he crinkles up meaningfully. He is widowed and has two daughters. The youngest is Lundy who is pert and tomboyish. The other daughter, Valenta, is quite different. She wears a lot of lip gloss and her lustrous head of hair is so heavily lacquered that it hardly moves when she goes out in a high wind - even Gale 8 at times.
Old Dogger Tyne loathes the Fisher family at South Utsire. The head of this family is Cromarty Fisher. He is fair, moderate and good. He has a senior ranch hand called Lewis whom he treats like a brother. Sometimes, however, he asserts his authority and kicks the butt of Lewis. Cromarty Fisher has a handsome son named Rockall who has a hyperactive Adam's Apple denoting sensitivity. O course, Rockall Fisher is in love with Lundy Tyne.
Why, you ask, do the Tyne hate the Fishers ? It goes back to an earlier generation when Viking Tyne was courting the wistful, romantic Faeroes Fisher, but the families would not let them marry. Poor Faroes went mad and threw herself off a cliff. The wind was Storm force 10 at the time. Viking died of grief. (All this can be seen in flashback.) Some folks say Faeroes secretly gave birth to a daughter called Hebrides. (She will turn up as a successful lawyer in Episode Fourteen.)
Other characters include Dogger Tyne.s sidekick, a sinister figure called Malin. He owns a fierce dog . a German Bight. He seldom speaks, just gives the odd, intermittent light scrowl.
Then there is the femme fatal, Shannon Fastnet, who is in love with Rockall Fisher but who knows it is hopeless. She drives her scarlet Portland convertible too fast and she goes to the bars in the nearby town of Biscay where she drinks too many Bell Rock cocktails.
You will soon be seeing the whole drama on your TV screens and I don't want to spoil the plot for you. I will just mention one marvellously dramatic moment. Young Lundy Tyne is being blackmailed by the evil Malin and finally she can take no more. She pulls out a Smiths Knoll Automatic and shoots at him. Malin just laughs in his sinister way. `Missed,. he sneers. `Three miles..."
derrick
The Glue that binds us together.
- Location
- On the edge of London
5 out of 10. that will do.
slowmotion
Quite dreadful
- Location
- lost somewhere
7 . Most people who sail take this stuff very seriously indeed. The shipping forecast is rather like worshiping at a shrine or consulting The Oracle. A fantastic ritual that you ignore at your peril. I did once and ended up in a very cold sea with the growing realisation that I might drown within the hour.
classic33
Leg End Member
On a ferry, sailing from Liverpool many years ago, when the announcement came over the PA system, warning of bad weather due followed by the Shipping Forecast.
Keith Oates
Janner
- Location
- Penarth, Wales
5/10 - But I spend most of my time in Asia.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Berk on a Bike
Veteran
- Location
- Yorkshire
There's something hypnotic about the shipping forecast (which, thinking about it, isn't ideal when driving to work at 5.20am). It's not just the sea areas (Forth, Tyne, Dogger...) but the coastal stations and inshore waters. They have a cadence which one gets used to. Nowadays the forecast is read by the on-duty weather presenter, same ones which appear on TV. I think it sounded better when it was presented by radio 4 announcers; those voices had a certain quality about them.
Please note, this is coming from someone who lives miles and miles from the sea and who gets seasick doing the washing up.
Please note, this is coming from someone who lives miles and miles from the sea and who gets seasick doing the washing up.
