It's a strange thing, I just looked up the dictionary definition of litany and it wasn't quite what I had expected. Dictionary.com defines it as follows:

"1. a ceremonial or liturgical form of prayer consisting of a series of invocations or supplications with responses that are the same for a number in succession.

2. the Litany, the supplication in this form in the Book of Common Prayer.

3. a recitation or recital that resembles a litany.

4.a prolonged or tedious account: We heard the whole litany of their complaints."

Although I always knew it was religious I had always thought that to a monk, a litany was a a prayer that was recited to give comfort during dark nights. In my own head I therefore associate a litany not with tedium but with relief, with comfort – a set of sounds or a flow of words that give stability or assurance.

Bizarrely, as a music lover it is flows of words that do it for me rather than music, which can go in and out of fashion. So to me (laugh if you wish) there are two flows of words, the Radio show The Archers and the Shipping Forecast, again on the radio, but early in the morning. Forget the story in The Archers, as that changes little, but the flow of the words and the way the show plays out is a constant, a background, a known noise, a-a-a litany. And for the Shipping Forecast, read in an old fashioned voice:

"Tyne Dogger Fisher German Bight Humber Thames Dover southwest 4 or 5, but northwest 3 or 4 at first except Tyne and Dogger. Slight or moderate. Showers. Moderate or good."

This is the beauty of radio, it can have extremely long lived programmes that change little and do not age. If you want more international backgrounds, try anything by Garrison Keiller, read by the author or go to the radio channel in iTunes and dig out Mystery Play Radio.

What does it for you?

Just thinking…