Tom's Takes - V for Victory, Beethoven and the BBC

Tom Service explains why the opening motif of Beethoven's Fifth became so familiar in Europe during the Second World War.

The morse code for V - three dots and a dash - was replicated by the opening bars of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. It soon became the BBC European Service's call sign and interval sign. Across Occupied Europe people hummed and whistled the tune, and in Britain the V made its way onto badges and other items. Prime Minister Churchill made the sign his trademark.

Germany initially banned the V symbol but ironically the country's most famous composer was himself a champion of personal liberty and a symbol of resistance to dictatorship.