Shipping Forecast The Controller of BBC Radio 4, Mark Damazer, attempted to explain its popularity: Zeb Soanes, a regular Shipping Forecast reader, described it thus: Another regular reader of the Forecast, Kathy Clugston, described it as "Like a lullaby, almost". The Shipping Forecast has inspired a number of songs and poems. Frank Muir and Denis Norden parodied the Shipping Forecast in a song written for an episode of "Take It From Here": "Dead Ringers" parodied the Shipping Forecast using Brian Perkins rapping the forecast ("Dogger, Fisher, German Bight – becoming quite cyclonic. Occasional showers making you feel cat-atatatatatata-tonic..."). Many other versions have
Terminology of the British Isles There have been several suggestions for replacements for the term "British Isles". Although there is no single accepted replacement, the terms "Great Britain and Ireland", "The British Isles and Ireland" and "Britain and Ireland" are all used. The word "England" is often used synecdochically to refer to Great Britain—or the United Kingdom as a whole—which often causes offence, particularly to those from the non-English parts of Britain. In a similar way, references to England as an island, to an "English passport", or to Scottish or Welsh places as being in England are examples of this usage of the term "England".