Empire of the Clouds story of the R101 airship, which crashed on its maiden voyage in northern France on 5 October 1930. The song was written entirely by the band's lead vocalist, Bruce Dickinson, who initially intended it to be about "World War I fighter airplanes;" Dickinson abandoned the idea after using the same theme for the song "Death or Glory," also from "The Book of Souls". At the time of recording, Dickinson was reading "a big, sort of encyclopedic crash report" of the R101, entitled "To Ride the Storm", which gave him the idea for the song's eventual subject. Dickinson describes it as
A Year in the Life of a Year A Year in the Life of a Year A Year in the Life of a Year is a British comedy programme created by and starring Rhys Thomas and co-starring his frequent collaborators, Lucy Montgomery and Tony Way. It is broadcast on BBC Four. The programme is a spoof review of significant national and cultural moments from the year gone by and uses re-edited and dubbed television and film output. The programme was first broadcast on 30 December 2016 with the title 2016: A Year in the Life of a Year. A second episode, reviewing 2017, was announced in May 2017.