Good afternoon and welcome to London Tonight Tonight in which we try to tempt you to join us and stay with us for the whole programme tonight.
Well, if I wasn't presenting it,l I'd scoot home to make sure I could watch it!
We take you inside the Pirbright facility where we are now almost certain the Foot and Mouth outbreak began. We talk to the Chief Vet Debbie Reynolds about the latest scares. (By the way, do you think, in 30 years, there'll be a Chief Vet called Uma Thurman or Kate Winslett?)
Away from that, George Galloway reveals which parliamentary seat he intends to contest at the next general election: you probably already know he'd said it wasn't going to be Bethnal Green and Bow again but the person he hopes to hurt this time is even more important, at the moment, than Oonagh King was last time.
The night before graduation at the Sandhurst Military Academy, or passing out as they call it, and disaster struck.
The ghastly details are more Peyton Place than An Officer and A Gentleman.
A young woman cadet, seriously ill in hospital; a young male cadet, held by police investigating attempted murder; 4am booze-ups and people in their underwear. And all among the country's future Officer Corps. It is jaw-dropping.
On the entertainment front, I am in a state of deep decline because Tamzin and I didn't get to interview Natalie Imbruglia who, instead, pours out her heart to Steve. I no longer support his campaign to play Buddy in the West End. (Tamzin says it was only ever a one-man campaign so "He's stuffed!")
Helen will be here to cast an eye over the movies and Tamzin will, as ever, craft her indispensable almanac of the weekend joys in the capital: yes, it is What Not to Miss.
I fought the fight but, alas, there will also be a preview of the footy season that pours, like a pot of poison, across your paths this weekend. The good news is that Piers and producer Chris have come up with a very clever, informative and even sexy take on this commencement of sporting hostilities - even I enjoyed it!
So with the weather wrapped like fine fish and chips in tonight's newspapers, it should be a feast fit for all of you.
Chomping begins at 6.
See you there.
Alastair and Tamzin.
