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This is the official website of London Tonight, on ITV1 in London and the South East every weeknight at 6pm.


7.12.09

London Tonight Tonight

Nightmare start to the week. Someone drove into a railway bridge somewhere near Luton and travel chaos ensued. I got into the office about an hour and a half later than usual so brevity is the key to today's blog. Luckily, all the bosses were in a planning meeting when I skulked in, so I think I got away with it by sitting down and starting to type purposfully... until confessing all on the blog, of course.

Most of you will recognise the desperation of a nightmare train journey and if you use the Jubilee Line regularly, you might want to sit down before you read the next bit: We've reported many times on the delays to improvement work as well as the millions of pounds in overspend. But now, Tube Lines - the company responsible for the work - says it needs more time to finish the job. And apparently that means the line could be shut for a further jaw-dropping 28 weekends?! Boris Johnson's not happy and there's a bit of water to un-muddy about whose fault it is. All, we hope, will become clear later.

In our top story tonight, Marcus Powell speaks to the family of murdered student Meredith Kercher. Marcus was in Perugia as the trial reached its conclusion at the weekend. Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were found guilty of murder but Meredith's family, now back home in Coulsdon in Surrey, have been talking about the life sentences they were served with when Meredith was taken from them two years ago.
We'll also hear from the family of 16 year old Ben Hitchcock who was stabbed to death in south London. It's still an unsolved murder and his family are renewing calls for help to catch his killer.

Also tonight...chess. It's coming back into fashion apparently. Remember the good old days when international chess was an east meets west Cold War affair? I remember watching chess live on telly in the 80's - how dull must that have been? This story sparked a bit of a discussion in the afternoon meeting as to how many movies have featured chess scenes. 'From Russia With Love' is the obvious one. They play a kind of chess game with holographic monsters in 'Star Wars', not sure if that counts? The best piece of instant recall though came from Paul, the boss, who remembered that 'The Grim Reaper' plays chess with a knight in 'Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey'. That's the level of our afternoon meetings, just so that you know...

See you at Six.

Matt and Katie