Dave Buckley

Many moons ago, I was talking to a retired Radio Three continuity announcer who, in his early days at the BBC covered all services – Home Service, Light Programme etc.

I asked him how the shipping forecast was read so that it exactly fitted five minutes, this was when it went out daily at 13.40 on LW. His reply was that if there was an over-run, then really it didn’t matter as it was the start of Listen With Mother that was clipped and that was also going out on MW.

However, one day, he finished the report with ‘…and that is the end of the shipping forecast’ and opted back to network. However, he had overrun slightly and what actually went out was “…and that is the end of the shipping forecast, sung by Peggy Lee”.

It was a Saturday and he had clipped the start of the Jack Jackson Show which started at 13.45. (Any one remember JJ shows. Prerecorded in the Canary Islands if I remember, and used cleverly edited sequences to link the records).

 

Pat Heigham

Yes, I enjoyed those. I gather JJ lived with a young lad who assembled the material, but not much good as an editor – it had to be redone by a BBC Tape op to make it work! At least, that’s what I heard!

 

Nick Ware

My favourite radio continuity announcer faux-pas of all time dates from 1960. I wonder if anyone here remembers it, or knows of one better?

The then South African Prime Minister, Dr Hendrik Verwoerd had been the victim of an assassination attempt. An irate farmer shot him in the head, and the bullet had ricoche’ed around inside his skull and left through his temple. Amazingly, it didn’t kill him, but it was obviously touch and go whether he was going to survive, so there were frequent news updates about his progress. The one I distinctly remember hearing, ended with: “There will be another bulletin tomorrow”.

He did survive, but was stabbed to death six years later.

 

Pat Heigham

Yes I remember that story, maybe it circulated after the attempt on Kennedy’s life, as well.

I still like the one from a very young continuity announcer lass who said: “The time is ten past twelve Greenwich.  Meantime…..”

 

Roger Long

I remember Charlotte Green on R4 News headlines giggling when she read testimony from the Trial of Jeremy Thorpe: Norman Scott biting his pillow when Jeremy first seduced him…

I had to stop my BBC Sierra on the M4 to contain myself.

 

Alan Taylor

This story isn’t anything to do with the shipping forecast, but was an unfortunate choice of words all the same.  It’s rather rude, so those with a sensitive nature might prefer to stop reading at this point.

Well, for all those of you with a mucky mind, a national radio DJ did a quiz on his afternoon radio show, taking advantage of those new fangled fax machines which were becoming ubiquitous in offices at that time.  The idea of the quiz was that two friends who work in different towns phone in, one of them had to be close to a fax machine.  That one was faxed a list of ten words and they had to provide clues for their friend to guess each word without using that word in the clue.  I was driving around the suburbs of Bristol at that time and other drivers ended up laughing uncontrollably at how things developed, as did the people in the studio.

On this particular afternoon, the mystery words were on a theme of animals. She reached the point where she had to gives a clue for "Ants" and said "You might find this animal in my pants".  

There was a bit of a pause and her friend cautiously guessed "Beaver".  You could clearly hear the laughter in the studio, but the DJ just managed to regain enough composure to say "No – this animal a bit smaller than that".

Long pause at the other end, then in a somewhat hesitant manner the friend suggested "Pussy?".