Radio 4 UK Theme

Radio 4 UK Theme

The BBC Radio 4 UK Theme is an orchestral arrangement of traditional British airs composed by Fritz Spiegl (and possibly Manfred Arlan) which was played every morning on BBC Radio 4 between 23 November 1978 and 23 April 2006.

The piece was used as a start-up theme to introduce the Shipping Forecast, and was always the first item broadcast after Radio 4 resumed service following the night-time handover to the BBC World Service. In 2006, Mark Damazer's decision to cancel the UK Theme to make way for a "pacy news briefing" caused much controversy in the United Kingdom, including extensive discussion in the British media and even in Parliament.

Read more about Radio 4 UK Theme:  Context and Usage, Description, Cancellation, The Single

Famous quotes containing the words radio and/or theme:

    We spend all day broadcasting on the radio and TV telling people back home what’s happening here. And we learn what’s happening here by spending all day monitoring the radio and TV broadcasts from back home.
    —P.J. (Patrick Jake)

    Only the most acute and active animals are capable of boredom.—A theme for a great poet would be God’s boredom on the seventh day of creation.
    Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)