Charlie Connelly: 'It's unadulterated goodness - that's why Shipping Forecast has captured hearts'

Charlie Connelly explores the places behind the voice of the Shipping Forecast in his touring stage show. He speaks to Laura Reid about the national institution.

There’s something comforting for Charlie Connelly about hearing the shipping forecast broadcast on the radio. “Like with many people, it’s always been in the background, it’s been the soundtrack to our lives in many ways,” says the stage performer, author and broadcaster.

“Certainly my mum and dad used to have the radio on in the kitchen at tea time when I was a kid and I'd come in and hear the Shipping Forecast playing. These names like Dogger and Fisher and German Bight sort of immerse into your subconscious from an early age.”

Still, it wasn’t until the now 55-year-old Connelly, who began his career writing books relating to sporting events, was putting pen to paper for an obscure football non-fiction piece more than two decades ago that it really captured his attention. "It was really late at night. I was late for the deadline and the rain was lashing against the window and I had the radio on quietly in the background and then the Shipping Forecast came on,” he recalls. “And I started listening to it in a way that for some reason I'd never listened to it before.

"It had just been a soundtrack before, a bit of background. But I started listening to all these names like FitzRoy, Trafalgar, Shannon, Rockall, Southeast Iceland. And I started thinking, well, I can tell where some of them are because even I with my sense of geography know where Southeast Iceland might be. But where on earth is Dogger and where on earth is Bailey? The more I thought about it, the more fascinated I became with the idea of of visiting these places.”

And so Connelly found himself doing just that, travelling to each of the 31 locations in turn over the course of a year. His journey led him to some remote places, including the Island of Utsira in the North Sea - the smallest municipality in Norway, and the Fair Isle, which is known as Britain’s most remote inhabited community and is called home by few more than 50 residents.

He turned his travels into a book exploring the places behind the voice of the Shipping Forecast and more than 20 years on, he’s still telling the stories of his voyage with his show Attention All Shipping. He launched the production in 2024, 100 years since the first broadcast of the Shipping Forecast, and has been touring ever since, with more dates coming up in Yorkshire over the next few weeks.

In the show, Connelly explores the broadcast’s remarkable history, unlocks its beguiling mysteries and curious phrases, and tells stories of his own adventures among the sea areas, celebrating what he firmly believes to be the greatest invention of the modern age. "There is this kind of stratum of society I think that is a Shipping Forecast fan,” he muses, speaking from Dundee, where he now lives.

But just why has a weather forecast mariners captured the hearts of many? “We were formed by the sea, we're forged by the sea and we're surrounded by the sea as well. We are an island and I think people sometimes lose sight of the fact that we are a maritime nation,” he considers. “We've all got maritime ancestors I think certainly if your roots are in this country – and even if they're not, I think most people have maritime ancestors somewhere...so I think that's part of it too, that it's part of who we are in a lot of ways.

"But also I think it keeps its popularity because, especially in the times we live in today, the shipping forecast is a force for good. That sounds a bit wishy-washy, but it's unadulterated goodness. It's just there to save lives at sea. We lose sight of that sometimes I think when we talk about the romance of it and the poetry of it and people lying up in bed late at night listening to it, but that's what it's there for. It was devised to save lives at sea and protect people at sea. And there's no dark side, no downside to that.”

The history of the forecast goes back to 1861, when Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy developed a telegraphic messaging system to issue weather warnings to ships, following the loss of the steam clipper Royal Charter in a violent storm that claimed over 450 lives. FitzRoy was the main influence in the early development of the Met Office, which was then primarily intended to improve safety at sea. “He got all this weather data in, he analysed all the figures and after a few years started to think I can start predicting what the weather's going to do in the future,” says Connelly.

Having grown up in London, Connelly says his own sea voyage gave him a greater appreciation for the nation’s maritime heritage and people who live and work in coastal communities. “You have to be pretty hardy to live by the sea and certainly live on an island, particularly a small island. And if you're making a living at sea as well, that takes a certain admirable hardiness of character and personality to do that,” he reflects.

"For all the weather forecasting and advances in technology, there is that randomness in the weather that we're never going to master. A storm can blow up without warning…So I certainly admire the resilience and hardiness of the people who make their living at sea and live by the sea.”

Battered by rain and suffering with sea sickness, it was a journey that also taught Connelly he’s not a natural sailor. “But it was worth it in the end and I came back with some some terrific stories of people I met and things I saw and did and that's the core of a big part of the show,” he says. “I've picked some of the best stories from that journey and people seem to enjoy them. So, I'll keep doing it ‘til they tell me to stop.”