Speechification

Steve, of this parish, often rebukes me for not editing my hijackings properly. I always leave it running at the end and you hear some continuty announcement, or the start of the next programme. And then he always relents and admits that that’s the stuff we’ll all want to hear again in twenty years. Not the actual programmes but the texture of radio. The voices, the coughs, the sigs, the sounds. So this edition of Ramblings will be right up a nostalgist’s street (not now, in 20 years, when speechification is archived on a gold disk on the side of a mission to another galaxy). Clare Balding takes her usual stroll, but this time in the company of the Radio 4 continuity team, all those announcers and newsreaders gathered in one place, gorgeous voices floating over Sussex. They were together in support of newsreader Rory Morrison who has a rare form of blood cancer, raising money for the Lymphoma Association. It’s rather moving and wonderful radio, a bit like being invited to a company Christmas Play, with the added bonus of some pips-based time signal geekery. The MP3 is here and there’s a typically comprehensive Ramblings page here.

And, as a special bonus for all you lovers of texture - here are various versions of the PM theme tune.