It's Friday everyone. 'Hurray' for those who get tomorrow and Sunday off. And for those working through the weekend... well, presumably it's 24 hours closer to your days off. You do get days off, don't you? If you don't, I'd be looking closely at your contract if I were you. If you work for yourself... take a day off. You've earned it.
So what will people be doing with their days off? DIY? Playing with the kids? A spot of gardening? Eating and drinking with friends? Or - going to the cinema, perhaps? With the help of Mr King, we'll be taking a look at a couple of your newer cinematic options on the programme. If you watched yesterday, you'll already have had a taste of 'Moon'. We spoke to its director, Duncan Jones. He's a terribly nice chap with a terribly famous Dad, a certain David Bowie. And having asked Duncan on the programme, I can now say with absolute confidence - it's pronounced Bowie. Not Bowie. (You should have been watching, shouldn't you?) Anyway, the second film we'll look at is one of those rather large affairs. A juggernaut of a film really - the next instalment in the Harry Potter saga. I've got tickets booked for that (actually, Mrs S did the booking). Can't wait. Ms Hyndman says she's enjoyed the ones she's seen but isn't a devotee. She's probably got other things in her life. Like Madness. She's off to see Madness, that is. She's not mad. Officially.
We have another giant band from the 80's on the show, actually. Anyone for 'Duran Duran'? A useless 'Trivial Pursuit' tit-bit for you: their 'View to a Kill' single is the only James Bond theme song ever to make to the top of the US charts. There you go - you can drop that one into the conversation if things are going a little slowly when your friends come over for dinner. Or leave them at the table while you finally get round to that DIY.
Now - the serious stuff. And our top two stories couldn't be any more serious really. The first is the death of a London mum. That's sad enough, but it's emerged she's one of the 29 British people to have died of swine flu, and she lost her life right after giving birth to her baby. What's more the baby is said to be 'very poorly'. And, in another worrying sign of the scale of things to come, the London Ambulance service is cancelling 'extra' training for its paramedics to keep as many of them on the front line as possible.
The other extremely serious event we have to tell you about is the shooting of a young man who was simply out playing football with his mates. A guy turned up on a bike in West Wickham and just opened fire at his victim - shooting him dead, there in front of his friends - before pedalling away. It sounds like an organised hit - that's what the police think, certainly. Marcus will have the latest.
Can you imagine being faced by a gunman? There you are, doing your job, and you're confronted by someone trying to kill you. Sadly, for our police officers, the possibility is all too real. It was for four fine and upstanding members of the Met: Stephen Hayter, Barry Leban, Richard Cousins and Michael Carroll. They showed the sort of bravery you read about in books... and see on our programme tonight.
Don't know about you but I'm waiting for a fairly important letter at the moment - so I, for one, will be interested in the latest on the, er, latest postal strike that, er, 'struck' today. Sorry, it's getting late. And it's Friday.
However, one more story to give you the heads-up on is the heart-warming latest on young Harvey Parry. At just four years old, he's been a friend of the programme for some time now. He lost both his legs to meningitis and has been on a number of trips to the States to get the very best man-made legs money can buy. Well, it's time for a new pair. And he's hoping these will enable him to not to walk but run.
Good story to end on.
It's in the mix tonight.
See you at six,
Ben & Alex
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