All Lit Up... Like Fairyland

The title of my blip for tonight is based on words from a live broadcast on 20th May 1937 by ex-Lieutenant-Commander Thomas Woodrooffe, in which he attempted to describe the Spithead Fleet Review from his old ship, HMS Nelson. Unfortunately he had had a few drinks in the officers' mess beforehand with some of his former colleagues, which resulted in his commentary being somewhat incoherent and rambling. He repeated the phrase "the fleet's lit up" over and over again, which may explain why "lit up" is also a euphemism for being inebriated. The broadcast is well-known to most of us who work for the BBC, because it's often been played to new recruits as a cautionary tale about being drunk on duty. It's hilariously funny to listen to now, but at the time Woodrooffe was suspended for a week by the BBC's first Director-General, Sir John Reith, a rather dour man and a strict Presbyterian.

In my blipfoto is All Souls Church in Langham Place, enveloped by the old and new arms of Broadcasting House, which is lit up in electric blue. The illuminated inverted cone to the far right of the picture is a sculpture called Breathing, situated on top of the new Peel Wing of Broadcasting House (named after the late and much missed John Peel). Some BBC staff and those who work with them undertake difficult and sometimes dangerous assignments. This memorial sculpture marks the invaluable contribution of those men and women who were murdered or lost their lives in acts of war while working on behalf of the BBC and its audiences.