Best Piece Of Commentary Ever?

[Graham S]

Originally, I stuck this in the thread about the Trafalgar celebrations, but I feared that nobody would see it, so I thought I'd give it a thread of its own.

Tonight I managed to find an mp3 of the famous BBC radio commentary in 1937 at Spithead, for the Coronation Fleet Review, where Lt Cdr Woodrooffe had had a few drinks too many before taking the microphone.

The Fleet's lit up (mp3)

It's brilliant. Please download it.

[Sabreman]

I hope more people have downloaded this. I just listened to it and it's absolutely fantastic.

[Plissken]

Thats ace!

"They've disappeared!"

[Fireproofradiator]

You can actually hear him opening a bottle at 00:32! Incredible scenes! He'd be great on Ricky Gervais' show...

"The fleet's gone! The fleet's gone!"

[chris on the moon]

the whole fleet is in fairyland!

the whole ship's outlined!

It isn't true, it isn't here!

there's nothing between us and heaven,

there's nothing at all!

wonderful.

[pretentious_helvetica]

"Faaairylanndd"

Ace! I'm trying to find the Brian Blessed interview on Radio 1 where he ended up saying "Calm down, Newsbeat! I am GOD!".

[Hello Goaty ♥]

giggling here

[AndyB]

[FishyFish]

Heard this on Radio 4 the other morning. Brilliant.

[Lovelyman]

I just listened to it. Fantastic stuff.

"I've just been telling people to shut up talking"

"What I mean is this"

[Marzipan Travolta]

Listened to this last night, didn't find it funny at all.

Then I went to bed and spent about an hour saying "the fleet's lit up" and laughing lots and lots.

[scruffycat]

That's hilarious, I remember reading a transcript of the speech years ago. To actually hear it though is so much better.

[Lovelyman]

Post Transcript pls.

[Sabreman]

This isn't the complete transcript - there's a lot more mumbling about fairy lamps but this is the gist of it:

"At the present moment, the whole fleet is lit up. When I say 'lit up' I mean lit up by fairy lamps. It's fantastic. It isn't a fleet at all. It's just... It's fairyland. The whole fleet is in fairyland. Now, if you'll follow me through... if you don't mind... the next few moments you'll find the fleet doing odd things."

Here Woodroofe paused for several seconds. "I'm sorry. I was telling some people to shut up talking."

At this moment, the fleet's lights were extinguished in preparation for the fireworks display.

"It's gone! It's gone! There's no fleet! It's... It's disappeared! No magician who ever could have waved his hand could have waved it with more acumen than he has now at the present moment. The fleet's gone. It's disappeared!

"I was talking to you in the middle of this damn... (coughs) in the middle of this fleet and what's happened is the fleet's gone and disappeared and gone!"