The Shipping Forecast: Lulling listeners for 100 years

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A couple of years ago, Al Ryan - a continuity announcer on BBC Radio 4 - started asking people to get in touch to tell him what the Shipping Forecast and Sailing By meant to them. Since then, he's received hundreds of emails from all corners of the planet. Elderly listeners and those living alone write of the comfort the forecast brings, while blind listeners share of the wondrous imagery it conjures in their head. As for the salty old seadogs in the Merchant Navy - it's an awakening of a by-gone era. As Radio 4 celebrates a hundred years of the shipping forecast, Al asked two of his announcer colleagues Jane Steel and Tom Sandars to help share some of those letters - which they've done in this episode of our 5 Minutes On podcast. (Image credit: Getty)