Good afternoon.
One of my favourite writers is E.M.Forster and one of his finest works is A Passage to India. In Sir David Lean's stunning film adaptation, Sir Alec Guiness plays Godbole and there is a celebrated scene in which a very crowded train pulls out of a very crowded station and, standing alone and utterly still, with his hands held in front of his heart in prayer mode, is the enigmatic Godbole.
"Clever old bugger" is how Lean described Guiness's serene performance in this powerful piece of simple, understated acting.
Imagine, if you will, the scene in India yesterday when our Mayor wanted to do a "Godbole" but someone had mentioned, in passing, that Ken was going to be on the Delhi to Mumbai express. Serenity went out the window, as nearly did our cameraman Kevin. 80 film crews mounted the rolling stock, thousands of Indians, anxious to catch sight of this celebrated revolutionary turned democratic municipal leader, that it all went "buffers up" in a frantic cacophony of iron-horse lunacy. We were there! Ken found time to clap the clapper board and to plead with the Indian authorities to buy the media centre at the 2012 Games park and to turn it into a post-2012 subsidiary of Bollywood. He put the idea to one of Bollywood's biggest stars.
The Big Boss, incidentally, said he thought the "Ken on a Train in India" scene sounded no different to the "Him on the Northern Line" scene at 8am any Monday morning.
Harris of the Subcontinent continues to do his Clive of India number for you at 6.
I think someone will make a film of our top story: last winter, 2 teenagers from north London were stopped at Accra airport in Ghana and, far from having Dell or Sony's finest in their laptop bags, they were found to have a third of a million quid's worth of Columbia's finest nestling up to their modems. They were found guilty of the cocaine smuggling today and are likely to learn next month that it will cost them the next three years of their lives in a ghastly, young offenders institution in West Africa.
Liz takes an impartial line on what is either a tearjerker or a case of 'reaping what you sow'.
Talking of which, I'd have thought we should be doing everything we can to be nice to the Croatians. They have qualified for what Ken assures me is called Euro 2008. So, tonight, they could just stand there, admire the view, let Peter Crouch pop one past them and do his odd dance. Job done, if they wanted to be nice to us. But we have to earn it. So, by way of a cleverly planned welcome, I am sure, one of our brave lads in blue lifted the head of the Croatian FA, at Gatwick Airport, on suspicion of shop-lifting from W.H.Smith. In the old days of Soviet satellite states, a free press was worth risking your life for but nowadays, frankly, no Croatian is going to risk their liberty for a copy of the Daily Mail or even the Sun. Marcus screams "Read All About It" at 6.
Also screaming at 6, the parents of the pupils at a school for deaf children in Camden. Sadie Frost's niece is a pupil and she joins the noisy throng with Glen who, I hope, won't get lost in the crowd.
Steve talks to Nigel Havers and we talk to Bobby Davro about panto. Oh no we don't, I said at the meeting. Oh yes you do, said Faye, my own vision of Cinderella. Your career, Alastair: it's behind you, said Katie...
Tracey Emin goes to church, in itself a potential lead story I'd have thought. She comes back with some beautiful images of her favourite place in London.
Robin has made his bed with his forecasts so he'll have to lie in it tonight.
I hope he doesn't need to wrap up in the papers once we have read you the front pages: it is getting cold out there.
Robin has made his bed with his forecasts so he'll have to lie in it tonight.
I hope he doesn't need to wrap up in the papers once we have read you the front pages: it is getting cold out there.
Thinking of Ken and his Indian summer? The crowding will convince you the place to be, is with us... at 6.
Alastair & Katie
