Former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott is to read the shipping forecast for Comic Relief Red Nose Day

After a recent interview on 'The World Tonight' on Radio 4 the former merchant seamen, who as a young man was a steward during the days of the great liners, jokingly said that he might as well stay on and read the shipping forecast. 

On 19 March he will get his chance read the 5.20am forecast on Radio 4 (long wave and FM).

Lord Prescott said, "I've always been fascinated by the shipping forecast ever since I was a waiter on the liners and I used to sit in my bunk listening to it on the wireless. It has such a metronomic quality, like the rhythm of the sea. It feels like a poem."