Sailing, bye

So it's official. The BBC Radio 4 UK theme has not got an ethereal reprieve, and will be heard on the flagship network's frequencies for the last time on the weekend of HM Queen Elizabeth II's 80th birthday, somewhat ironically.
I wonder what her maj. thinks of all the furore over the demise of this 33-year old day-opener? Maybe as a responsible sovereign she'd rather have a ten minute fill of the shipping forecast for all her brave boys out on the briney than a burst of Rule Britannia at that hour of the morning. She certainly needs to keep in touch with what's happening in her realms and territories, so maybe the news briefing will fit the bill, though I suspect her courtiers will be the ones blearily rising rather than this stately lady. News Briefing once started Radio 4 all week anyway at 06.00 - rather than just on Saturday as at present- before the all-conquering Today programme gained an extra half hour.
Well, I suppose we will just have to accept the fate of the late Mr Spiegl's opus, but maybe with charter renewal and discontented licence payers in mind, Radio 4 controller has come up with some kind of typical British compromise. The Radio 4 UK theme will continue to be available as a stream on the station's website, though not to download.

Mind you, quite who is going to get out of their bed at 05.30 to play a 5-minute tune on their PC or laptop is anybody's guess. Perhaps in the tradition of great British eccentricity I ought to be one of them. But then that's hardly a necessary option, since the enterprising Light Music Society, with the assistance of the man behind an easy-listening cover of Oasis's Wonderwall a few years back, has released a CD single of the theme. It went into the charts at number 29 at the weekend; I bought a copy myself on Monday evening so maybe it will rise even higher next week. Now, will it ever get to number one? Unlikely, but wonders do happen...

At least the second track on the disc seems set to continue to rule the late-night waves. Sailing By, composed by light music maestro Ronald Binge, heralds the 00.43 shipping forecast before the national anthem- the only place in British broadcasting you'll now hear it on a daily basis- closes the evening shift and the old home service takes a half-night nap. Now if God Save the Queen were ever to vanish, maybe it really would be off with the controller's head.