[quote=“Northern_Piper, post:9, topic:746590”]
So in the middle of the worst war in human history, when the future of Britain and Europe hung in the balance, and all resources were being dedicated to total war …
… the BBC felt it necessary to send out a team to record a nightingale singing.
[/quote lo
Reviving this bit of the thread because this Sunday is the centenary of the first time the BBC broadcast the nightingale joining in as the cellist Beatrice Harrison practised in her garden. She suggested it might be interesting for the nascent BBC to broadcast (practically their first outside broadcast), and the audience response was so good that it became an annual event into the late 1930s. It also featured in the WW2 movie Demi-Paradise as an example of the seemingly frivolous habits encountered by a Soviet engineer sent to England on some technical mission.
If anyone’s interested, there’ll be a special programme on Radio3 on Sunday: