Good Afternoon Everyone.
Hope you're well. Hope you're not working too hard. And if you've got the day off - keep it to yourself.
This evening, we're going to be looking westwards. The floods are coming. We've all watched the misery of thousands of people, forced out of their homes for the best part of a week now. Well, much of Oxford (less than 60 miles from London) is under water today and it looks like our corner of England is next. So, a solid chunk of our programme is taken up with events along the Thames.
Simon Harris reports on the picture in Reading where residents could be hours away from disaster... Phil Bayles will cover preparations in Marlow and Henley (and the plan to divert floods around Windsor)... and Chrissie is at work ON the river, out on patrol with the RSPCA. Later, busy girl, she'll talk us through all the flood watches and warnings we need to know about.
Away from the floods, Piers Hopkirk has the story of a man, his medals and the thieves who stole them. Yep, two conmen lied their way into a pensioner's house and took 6 medals in all. Two were for his service in the RAF. The others rewarded his father's duties in the First World War. The search for the really precious possessions is on - and the cops are keen to get them back to their rightful owner.
We'll also have a restored organ at the Hammersmith Apollo... and the premiere of 'The Simpsons Movie' - NOT now showing in Hammersmith, but at the O2 (which looks uncannily like the Simpsons' home town, Springfield).
Okay, plenty more work to do before we can serve it all up, so away we go...
See you at six.
Ben & Katie
