Good afternoon.
Two years ago tomorrow, and I remember it as if it was yesterday - Buncefield blew. Miles before we got there we could see the column of black, thick smoke building over Hemel Hempstead and it's hinterland. We broadcast, live, from the top of a ski-slope that night and talked to mums, dads, kids, councillors and fire-fighters. My hair was nearly as wild as the scene - one of Europe's biggest petrol depots, threatening to explode. That didn't happen but the damage done to homes, the neighbouring farmland, businesses and the general environment was catastrophic. What is staggering is the apparent delay in putting it right: some are claiming the company is considering re-opening whilst some home-owners are still to receive full compensation. We talk to one tonight and hear what Buncefield's owners have to say too.
Many of you may have felt entitled to compensation, too, if you have had to travel by rail to Gatwick or Luton airports via Thameslink and their Kings Cross/St.Pancras "hub".
"How many times do I have to change trains if I am going from London to Aberdeen, via Bristol and Norwich?" is the sort of brain-teaser rail enquiry people relish.
"Where are the Thameslink platforms?" must seem mind-numbingly dull by comparison. But it is the most frequently asked at St.Pancras/Kings Cross. We are assured all is solved now but Phil picked up an Ordinance Survey map and a compass, to check.
"How many times do I have to change trains if I am going from London to Aberdeen, via Bristol and Norwich?" is the sort of brain-teaser rail enquiry people relish.
"Where are the Thameslink platforms?" must seem mind-numbingly dull by comparison. But it is the most frequently asked at St.Pancras/Kings Cross. We are assured all is solved now but Phil picked up an Ordinance Survey map and a compass, to check.
One of the original St. Trinians films was "The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery", or something like that, and much of it was filmed around Farnham and Borden on the Hampshire Surrey borders. My brother went out with one of the original girls and I remember being very impressed when I met her. In the remake, Girls Aloud play some of the naughty school girls and I remember being overly unimpressed when my son, who I had taken to a Capital pop concert, didn't want to introduce me to Girls Aloud, as he happily chatted them up. Alastair Sim was the original Headmistress, a role which falls to Rupert Everett this time, a curious consistency in gender confusion which has made panto and much of British comedy what it is and , bar Dustin Hoffman, continues to confuse most Americans. Our very real woman on the red carpet tonight is Jasmine who hopes to keep a level head as she hunts down Rupert and/or Colin Firth for your amusement and entertainment.
From an unlikely but hugely funny school to today's beacons of learning and, as the festive season approaches, so too do we. Tonight, we launch our search for the finest dulcet tones among our school children and we will feature the best of them in the week before Christmas. Scrooge, eat your heart out: we are on the side of the angels and Tiny Tim.
From Dickens "Christmas past, Christmas present and Christmas future" we march to the Post Office, not to post our Christmas cards but to give them a yellow card. They used a converted bathroom-showroom, a few doors down from a Post Office they have recently shut, to advertise the Post Office of the future. Locals, unamused, explain to Glen why the PO is off their present and card lists.
The Government wants getting on for two billion quid for Christmas marked "Spend it on something useful", just like our grannies used to with Christmas money. Problem is "useful" is the 2012 Olympics and "Spend it" - they already have.
Well, spent some and earmarked most of the rest, at any rate. Harris gets curious and possibly cross about 2012 "contingency money". We will be also asking for your thoughts.
Chrissie's back from the north - it must be really cold there because it is pretty nippy here.
The papers will probably be talking Afghanistan and mystery canoeists, but any more recent developments won't be on their front pages but in our news.
Tune in at 6, if you can. We do hope so.
Alastair & Emma
