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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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'the fleet's lit up
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' Phrase lodged in the public mind from the most famous of broadcasting blunders. Commander Tommy Woodrooffe was commentating live for the BBC from the Coronation Naval Review at Spithead in 1937. 'Lit up' was a standard euphemism for being drunk, and listeners were variously outraged or delighted when Woodrooffe rambled on with such comments as 'the whole fleet's lit up... when I say lit up, I mean lit up by fairy lamps... the whole thing is lit up by fairy lamps... it's just... fairy land'. After a few minutes he was taken off the air in mid-sentence, and he was suspended by the BBC for six months; but he resolutely denied that a day of hospitality on his old ship HMS Nelson had taken its toll, insisting that he had been working too hard and that his mind had gone blank.
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