World Radio

The Radio 4 UK Theme at 5.30am is a rousing collection of UK folk songs, carefully interwoven to produce a great piece of music with which to start the day. It has been around for 33 years, and was created by Fritz Spiegl, an Austrian who came to the UK in 1939. It is a medley of "Rule Britannia!", "Danny Boy", "What shall we do with the drunken sailor?" (in counterpoint with "Greensleeves"), "Men of Harlech" (equally cunningly combined with "Scotland the Brave"), "Early One Morning" and finally back to "Rule Britannia". The controller of Radio 4 plans to get rid of The Theme in order to broadcast some extra shipping news, prompting a public outcry, with two MPs tabling parliamentary motions against its axing.