Saturday 24 November 2007

Sailing By

If you have ever been awake in the wee small hours and listening to Radio 4 then you will know this piece of music. Sailing By was composed in 1963 by Ronald Binge and is played at the end of domestic broadcast schedule each night, just before Radio 4 hands over to the World Service. It has lulled millions to sleep over the years, many of whom were up in arms when it was taken off air in 1993. The natural order of things was reinstated two years later when the powers that be saw sense and brought it back on to the schedule.

2 comments:

i beati said...

were you one of the lullees???

Juliet said...

arrrghh nooooo! - I loathe and detest this so-called 'music' with a deep, malevolent hatred. I am often awake at that hour and if I don't dash to the off-switch soon enough Sailing By can completely ruin the end of my day and force make me to stay up even longer listening to some musical antidote to get its ghastly strains out of my head. I am otherwise a huge devotee of Radio 4 and adore everything about it . . . except Sailing By, You and Yours and Bells on Sunday.