London Tonight Tonight Wednesday 8th October 2008

Good afternoon.

With what is going on in the economy you, like me, may be tempted to flee this mayhem !

"Frankly", as W.C.Fields says on his tombstone , "I'd rather be in Philadelphia!" Or Paris. Or Reading. Well, depending on what happens at a meeting of Newham Council at 6pm, getting to Paris could be easier: good news for us escapees, but not so for the good people who live around City Airport. Lewis Vaughan Jones will be there to bring you the outcome of the debate on expansion, live.

As for Reading, getting their quicker from this eastern side of the city may now be a pipe-dream. Crossrail may get crushed by the credit-crunch. It was always going to cost several King's ransoms but now it may simply be that the dosh the Government were going to spend digging the tunnel and propping it up, will be spent on digging the Banks out of a hole and propping them up, instead. Harris goes underground to fathom the truth.

Also fathoming the truth, several hundred miles north of here, are the Police who are crawling all over a Leeds flat in the belief that it was either a bomb factory or ops' base for the 7/7 bombers. Dabs to the left of them, DNA to the right - they think they are onto something and John Hill, a reporter from "oop thar" will tell all.

Finally, two bits of history: tomorrow night, in an ITV4 show, some of the oldies and goldies of English and Irish football will confront each other as Legends of The Beautiful Game. Truth to tell, few of them are particularly beautiful now, but they have a tale or two to tell and grudge or three to settle. Kenny Sansom is the man with the red and yellow cards and will blow the whistle on the lot of them.

Finally, what Faye (sharply pointed cream shoes, blood-vessel-busting jeans and a pin-striped, "nod to the city crisis" jacket) says is her favourite story, ever. Len Smith was young, brave and a gifted artist. But, in 1914, like tens of thousands, he answered the call to arms. He kept a book of his thoughts, his souvenirs and, most importantly, his sketches. When High Command (think of the idiot Melchett in Blackadder Goes Forth) had the seriously unusual wit to figure out that his drawings might help the war effort, he was pressed into drawing enemy emplacements - even being sent, under cover of night, to No-Man's land to get a better look. The results were useful then, but are powerfully emotional reminders now of just how brave and inventive that generation were. Private Len Smith died 30 years ago but a nephew preserved this moving volume, and tonight we can share some of it with you. You will be amazed and moved by it and can then go online and see the lot. Of this, we are proud.

Another ray of light in all the gloom will come from Chrissie's magic meteorological wand - it's looking a bit better for a day or two. The papers will out-do each other on "bank bail-out/interest-rate cut" stories and we'll share with you your thoughts on City Airport's expansion ... or not.

But my guess is you will be thinking of Len Smith, curled up in a fox-hole, drawing machine guns and German helmets in an extraordinary effort to bring victory to the country he loved and save the lives of the men he fought with.

I've gone all emotional but without apology.

See you at 6.

Alastair & Katie

 

London Tonight Tonight Tuesday 7th October 2008

Good afternoon.

It is a grey, damp afternoon and Faye ( black trousers and THAT Rolling Stones glitter top again !) and I decided we were in need of a boost so took ourselves off to the canteen. I went for a Crunchie Bar and she for some custard cream biscuits. Still gloomy. What we need is some happiness but where might we find it and from whom?

Perhaps, we need a Happiness Counsellor. Well we know where we can find one! Not wishing to spoil your amusement or to spoil the joke with the punch line, all I will tell you is that the person we have in mind is currently engaged in a re-housing project in Elephant and Castle. Intrigued? It will be more rewarding than a Crunchie bar or, even, several custard cream biscuits.... which is just as well, as they have all gone now.

Second only to a Happiness Counsellor - in fact second and third only to the aforementioned practitioner of mirth-spreading - are French and Saunders. The twin geniuses of Ab Fab and The Vicar of Dibley are about to mount a two-person stage show and they have found time to drop in and share their funniness with you, via us. An entire box of Crunchie bars and the whole output of a Custard Cream factory could not compete.

Nothing, in the bright and beautiful minds of Katie's girls, can compete with High School Musical - they eat and breathe this miraculous example of Disney striking just the right note, (lots of them, in fact), at just the right moment. Tonight number 3 in the movie series has it's premiere in Leicester Square. Lucy is there and Zac Efron - who plays male lead Troy - says he'll be there. He's a fool if he fails to show because the lovely Lucy will be on hand to chat to him.

The judge in the Buncefield oil refinery blast damages case has told the parties to "chat" to one another PDQ - a settlement is all but there and I think he wants to start planning for Christmas. The claimants should get some dosh but the details, His Honour suggests, can be thrashed out now the oil giants have agreed it was their oil on their complex which caused the problems. Marcus dampens down the fire of fury or, if they don't sort it, will fan the flames thereof.

Finally a school that has started before it was finished and a black copper who has ended his career but hasn't ended having his say. I'll say no more but both will raise you eyebrows ... unless they were singed by the Buncefield blaze, in which case we'll never know.

I suspect two of the papers will be left standing by the other one in the race to tell you the latest in the fast unfolding financial chaos that is the death throws of capitalism as we now know it.

And Chrissie, looking even more lovely with her new hair do, will be honest about the weather prospects so you may want to put your fingers in your ears and delude yourself, like the bankers, that it'll all turn out nice.

See you at 6.

Alastair and Katie.

London Tonight Tonight Monday 6th October 2008

Positive greetings of a post-meridian manner.

On our crisp, multi-media proffering of user-friendly info' this close of play period, we celebrate, in a hands-on fashion, a fight back against jargon in Harrow.

You know, all the rubbish that litters forms - some to make silly people feel better about what they do by dressing up their job-description with a meaningless yet verbose title; some of it, more troublingly, is used to confuse or scare-off claimants. The good folk of Harrow Town Hall have said "enough is enough" instead of " we have reached a point, at this moment in time, when some of the verbiage employed by our operatives is superfluous". "Hurrah for them" says Ben, our man with the blue pencil and the Everyman Dictionary.

Some of this jargon-language is the child of political correctness - gender is a particular area of sensitivity. But race is the richest vein: even describing a day like today, with shares falling and bankers losing billions, as "Black Monday" has been frowned upon. But what is a serious race issue is the suggestion that black youths should not join the Met because it is STILL racist. The body that represents black police officers has issued a call for a boycott of the Met. That there needs to be a Black Police Association is, in many people's minds, a shameful sign of the times and we will be talking to the Association's Chair (there I go) on the programme.

One hopes no Police Officers were attending group meetings of any sort when two pitbulls, running on the loose, attacked and severely wounded a young mum out for a stroll with her toddler in his pushchair. She is badly, really badly, wounded. Her husband distraught, but the little boy, blessings, OK. There's now an almighty row about the investigation, about fault and about the attitude of the owner. Only when Katie said "The dogs could have eaten the child" did the full potential horror of this episode dawn upon me. She is right. It hardly bears thinking about. Nick has put on thick clothing and gloves to investigate.

Bozza is now the Chair of the Met Police Authority and Harris has been taking statements on how he is likely to do in over-seeing the Force and over-seeing the search for a replacement for Sir Ian Blair. Bozza says he is quintessentially a multi-culturalist because one of his grandparents was a Turk. Nevertheless, he will have to scratch his near white locks over the problem with black coppers... or a distinct lack of them, too.

Talking of jargon busting, Harris has just complained that he has been declared "de-skilled" because he hasn't edited, on his own, much since he returned triumphantly from Beijing. He'd have to "re-skill" he was told. I think it was only the "kill" bit of the word which was on his mind as he strode off to find a manager to discuss the matter with.

Ben Barnes is a handsome young actor who made a big splash in Prince Caspian, the latest Narnia movie. And he's got what sounds like a fun and fascinating new offering about to occupy your attentions as you sip Kiora and crunch popcorn of a Saturday night. KD and I will enjoy meeting him later.

Faye is back - I so like the boots, I'll say no more but she looks a holistic treat and I'll leave it at that - save to say, "welcome back, lovely!".

With that , "see you in a jiff" - or, may the ensuing interlude which places, in separate silos, that which you are tasked to perform and that which we have been charged with joint focused responsibility over, be brief.

Alastair & Katie.

LONDON TONIGHT TONIGHT

Good afternoon.

What did you want to be when you were young? You know, "When I grow up, I want to be ....".

Many of us aspired to something that might please our parents: I wanted to be in the Fleet Air-arm because my mum was a WREN and my dad was an RAF navigator.

Salma began wanting to be an English teacher and then aspired to being a news reporter - she loved reading and being listened too.

But what could conceivably make anyone want to be a latter day Jack the Ripper? We immediately slump into the realms of psychosis and the dark pages of human evil to understand this. But when "Killers-The Most Barbaric Murderers of Our Time" is among someone's favourite night-time reading, it's pretty clear there's a deep rooted problem. But Derek Brown went tragically and gruesomely further - a serial sex-offender, he sunk to the depths and killed two young women. Their remains were never found. It is a dreadful but compelling story and today we can report it following his his conviction.

Oddly, it was another success for what was, until 4.15pm yesterday, Sir Ian Blair's brilliant band in blue. The PC PC will remain in office for a few more weeks then presumably consult. We've been consulting of the whys and where-fores of his dramatic ousting by Bozza and it as fascinating a drama as Colin Dexter or P.D.James might pen. Jon Gilbert reviews the plot.

To plots of a different sort - the moving and majestic War Graves across north-western Europe never fail to send a chill down my spine and cause tears to well-up in my eyes. The grey-stone monuments in so many market towns, across Great Britain, don't have the same effect on me though, I am sure, for the relatives of the men and women whose names are there, the impact is strong and lasting. 1914-18 and 1939-45 claimed so many of our finest, they deserve all they get to hold them in our grateful memories. So, might the addition of the names of those who have fallen in more recent conflicts - Iraq and Afghanistan, for example - be appropriate additions or is there something perculiarly special about those two global conflicts? I am not sure, but tonight we have the tale of a family's battle to have the name of their late loved one, added to the roll of honour and how it didn't result in early surrender by the forces of opposition. It is a moving story and sets an important precedent, either way. We'll supply the facts and ask for your opinions.

James will give his opinions on two films - "Alienate", which appears to have done just that to most critics, though James may differ; and Brideshead Revisited which many critics feel it simply shouldn't have been, the TV version having been incapable of improvement. Again James, who is to film reviewing what Evelyn Waugh was to the English novel, gives us his views.

Lenny Henry gives us his views on the achievements of some black school children and tells us about progress on one of his own, most cherished ambitions.

War of the Worlds was a great novel by H.G.Wells, turned into a great radio play by Orson Wells which terrified Americans into their bunkers. It also inspired a great album of the 70s under the grand command of Jeff Wells ... sorry, Jeff Wayne.

He and the delicious Jennifer Wells... no, that's Jennifer Ellison! Anyway, both of them are with us in the studio to tell us about the lastest incarnation of this master work of popular music.

Robin may be so moved as to sing his forecast to you and the papers may get nudged out by the excitement we all feel for what we have to offer you, but we'll see.

A brief battle raged over whether we would have What Not To Miss in the running order until I realised the man who is in charge today, Ken "West Ham to win the Champions League... one day" Hayes, was joking. Salma wasn't sure it was funny, at all. I thought it was. Briefly.

See you at 6.

Alastair & Salma

Please Note:     Any views or opinions are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent  those of Independent Television News Limited unless specifically stated.  This email and any files attached are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to which they are addressed.  If you have received this email in error, please notify postmaster@itn.co.uk   Please note that to ensure regulatory compliance and for the protection of our clients and business, we may monitor and read messages sent to and from our systems.  Thank You.  

LONDON TONIGHT TONIGHT

Good Afternoon.

One of the oddest things that happens to us is that , when we are on air with a bulletin, a rumour starts to circulate. The clock ticks away until the programme finishes as colleagues lift every stone to try and stand the rumour up or knock it down.

So it was for Katie and me on the ITV Lunchtime News and the rumour was explosive.

Sir Ian Blair, Commissioner of the Met' was to stand down. As responsible journalists, we don't subscribe to the "not wrong for long" approach and, by 2pm as we came off air, we weren't sure enough to report it. We are now. He is to make a statement in a little under and hour and at 6pm we will have the full story for you.

From "never liked him" to "he's the target of a right-wing conspiracy", we'll have all views and ask for yours, too.

We'll also have the remarkable story to one of the successes scored by the men and women under Sir Ian's command - the jailing of a woman who made Walter Mitty look like a man who was steeped in reality and Ronnie Biggs, a fine upstanding example of a law abiding citizen. Her taste was for jewels and fine art, especially when it belonged to someone else. She was good but she was caught. Birthday boy Marcus gets this gift of a story.

The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Some of the finest poetry, penned in the English language. Acts of selfless heroism. The most obscene waste of human life in living memory. All are icons of what Edwardians dubbed The Great War and the most optimistic among then named The War to End all Wars. It was neither and the Imperial War Museum has opened an exhibition to mark the 90th anniversary of its ending next month. Lewis has been down Lambeth way for a look at a fitting tribute to the victims and the tragically fewer survivors of that blot on humanity's landscape.

And from blots on the landscape to a jewel in our crown - Tamzin is back! "Hurrah!" I lead you in shouting. She has a new show at 1130 tonight called Forward slash London or, in electro-script, "/london". Tonight she talks to Frank Bruno among others but, for me, it is just the joy of having her back. We will give you a taster.

This news leads us into the lighter side of life in our televisual trek across the metropolis - Kelly Brook, who has done most things and can do little wrong in my book, has made her debut on the West End stage in a swimming suit. I think that covers most bases for the theartre crtics and the blokes among you! Lucy , an elegant image of beautiful talent herself, makes it a magic double act.

Then Roy Walker joins us in the studio. Compared to having Kelly in the studio, he's good but it's not right. Seriously, he is a durable pillar of LE and has a one man autobiographical show that, like Richard and Judy, is proving a not immediately obvious sucess on the University circuit. Say what you see will prompt you to say "It's Roy Walker"...

Robin will look at his charts and will say what HE sees - perhaps some sun, rising over the grey horizon? One can but hope.

And remember, your thoughts, reminiscences, affection and prejudices over Sir Ian Blair.

See you at six.

Alastair and Salma.

Please Note:     Any views or opinions are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent  those of Independent Television News Limited unless specifically stated.  This email and any files attached are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to which they are addressed.  If you have received this email in error, please notify postmaster@itn.co.uk   Please note that to ensure regulatory compliance and for the protection of our clients and business, we may monitor and read messages sent to and from our systems.  Thank You.  

LONDON TONIGHT TONIGHT

Good Evening,

'Broken society' - our broken society - that's the main theme of David Cameron's speech this afternoon. Today's show unfortunately does little to dispel that notion.

Hemel Hempstead has been a broken society for almost 3 years. The Buncefield Oil Depot explosion dispersed the community, destroyed local businesses and left streets literally in tatters. . Today Total and Chevron were in the High Court - the start of a hearing to decide which if any company was responsible. Those who continue to be affected are claiming £1 billion in damages. They've waited a long long time for closure - hopefully this will bring it.

Back to David Cameron - he says in no uncertain terms - there will be no third runway at Heathrow under a Tory government. We've heard a lot on this over the past week ... today we'll speak live to Willie Walsh , BA's chief exec who unsuprisingly thinks it will damage the national economy and condemn air travellers to decades of delays (and that's without going through Terminal 5).

 

David Cameron says he's 'a man with a plan' to fix our Broken Society, for that we'll just have to wait and see. Two people who have already shown their grit and determination to make a difference are Gloria and Richard Taylor, parents of Damilola who was stabbed and left to die in a Peckham stairwell almost 8 years ago. They made a vow to tackle youth violence on our streets and remained true to their word. Unfortunately Gloria passed away earlier this year - but Richard has been honoured at the Pride of Britain awards, and rightly so.

Guy Ritchie meets Sherlock Holmes in a new movie - confused? Alastair isn't - "Lock Stock and 2 Smoking Violins" he said "put that in the blog" ... I wouldn't dare to go against such a wish, especially as I know he's had his sugar intake today - I knew buying that crunchie was a bad idea.

Well the lovely Lucy will of course be covering that. Phil Bayles meets 9 very happy lottery winners from a care home in Essex. And Chrissie is back from her hols - looking incredibly tanned and relaxed ... when the weather girl goes abroad for her sun you know she can't have much good news to report ... oh well.

See you at 6

Salma and Alastair

LONDON TONIGHT TONIGHT

Good Afternoon.

Ken is in command today but we have persuded him not to lead on West Ham, do a property piece on the East End, profile the Icelandic finance industry nor commission a one-off What Not To Miss, in and around Upton Park.

He has a celebratory exclamation which he bellows after a successful programme - "Nailed that sucker!".

Tonight the "sucker" he nails is the one that caused the fire at the Cutty Sark. Clues, then, to the cause of the fire that gutted more than a century of maritime history: "Bish, bash, Bosch", "Don't make a Miele out of it", "Dyson arson". Alas, we couldn't come up with one for "Goblin" which was the brand of my mother's "sucker" when I was a child. There's also the role played by some of London's least brightest sparks who claimed to have been there all along only for their forged evidence to have escaped destruction in the fire they missed. It is a corker and Phil plays the Captain Ahab of the tea-trade.

Despite his addiction to the claret (in both senses) and blues, Ken has agreed that the Gunners attempts to redeem themselves are worthy of our efforts. "What they need", mused Katie, (stunning in black trousers and a cherry decorated top) "is an old head on those young shoulders". We were impressed as was she when she was listening to the radio on the way in to work. Whether David Pleat can compete in the "impressive" stakes, I know not but he gets his chance, mid-way through the second half of this programme of two halves

Also chasing the decider as the minutes tick by is Kevin Spacey who celebrates "The Norman Conquests", in the round, at the Old Vic. Two Oscars but what Kevin is really proud of is what he has done for London and Scarborough. Scarborough? Oh, yes, Scarborough - I'll leave it to Lucy to explain.

An explanation, of sorts, for the brutal death of a Londoner in Norwich for a family get-together: he'd tried to do the right thing and it cost him his life. Glen Goodman hears the sadness and anger of a grieving, yet curiously proud, family.

No pride in the murder of a woman who had popped into her office block for a shower only to be confronted by an opportunist thief. He killed her and pinched some lap-tops. He'll be logging on, at Her Majesty's Pleasure, for many years to come. Marcus is trying to lose the keys.

Liz, the pride of this programme, is covering The Pride of Britain Awards - whatever the outcome, an uplifting event. Watch out for the firemen - they are terrific!

Robin, guilty of most of the "sucker" puns, will also come up with a witty explanation for cold, wet, windy weather and the papers will give you something to screw up and throw at him - metaphorically.

See you at 6.

Alastair and Katie.

Please Note:     Any views or opinions are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent  those of Independent Television News Limited unless specifically stated.  This email and any files attached are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to which they are addressed.  If you have received this email in error, please notify postmaster@itn.co.uk   Please note that to ensure regulatory compliance and for the protection of our clients and business, we may monitor and read messages sent to and from our systems.  Thank You.  

London Tonight Tonight Monday 29th September 2008

Good afternoon and welcome.

I love airplanes and dislike trains. Ever since the drama of engine-pulled rolling stock gave way to charmless electric "buses", the thrill of travelling on The Great Iron Horse has gone. I remember silver service food on the East Coast line from Dundee to London being something to look forward to; and a freshly poached egg, atop a well-poached piece of haddock, genuinely made you long for the next journey. Now, either an absence of vitals or ghastly "bloomers" purporting to be sandwiches , followed by fruit that looked it had been bored to death, or "cake" you can't extract from its prophylactic packaging, guarantee that any intelligent passenger tucks in at home before heading for the station. And the toilets? I am speechless.

Planes I like, despite the delays, the inconvenience of the airports and the undoubted eco-damage they do. Lighter, airier and more comfortable, they often offer food that is edible, served by people who seem to care whether you care. Not always, but in the main.

So it is right a Government-in-waiting should consider this matter: If Heathrow can't cope anymore, what to do? More plane or more train?

Selling off Gatwick and/or Stansted will not make any difference to capacity and people will still have to get from London to the regions. A third runway out there is deeply unpopular with the locals and others, on principle. Bozza, radical and/or ridiculous as ever (depending on your point of view) says "Build a new airport in the estuary!" "Won't it flood?" asks Salma. "Probably not", say Faye and I.

( I note, troublingly, that, in addition to an almost summery black cotton dress, she is wearing sturdy boots - perhaps a flood warning others of us missed?)

David Cameron, who is the leader of Bozza's party, says "let the train take the strain" and St. Pancras is big and pretty enough to take a few more high-speed services. Who is right and who is the real Fat Controller? Harris blows his whistle and waves a flag from Birmingham.

Hospitals are meant to make people better not injure them. So, when a gas canister exploded on a cardiac ward, things were clearly not going according to plan. That the hospital was Great Ormond Street made it even more dramatic: extremely ill children don't tend to have it in them to flee to safety and need rather more help than most. We have one of those "Hurrah!" stories, tonight, as we tell you what happened at GOSH today and how the bravest of the brave took a hit in helping the most vulnerable of the vulnerable.

I suppose gravestones are vulnerable, too: but no one tends to guard them on the reasonable assumption that normal people respect them or, in truth, ignore them if they are not of "family" or "friend". They just don't need protecting in a civilised society. But if you factor in racism and it's all too common bed-fellow "stupidity", different things can happen. Phil will explain.

Bradford & Bingley used to be promoted by two Charlie Chaplin-esque characters saying how wonderfully secure things were; then a pretty girl, all in green including the essential bowler hat, talked about dreams coming true. Well the dreams are shattered and things really weren't that safe, were they Mr Bradford? "No they weren't, Mr Bingley". Louisa explains how a boom in buy-to-let down here, helped do for a one-time building society up there. Plus how the cost of heating will, in future, impact on your rent. Interesting, especially given even fewer of you will be buying in the foreseeable future.

Evelyn Waugh was a man who wrote a book upon which was based one of the greatest pieces of TV drama in many years. Job done, you might think but then there's the movies, isn't there? Does the tale of war, big teddies, stately homes, dissolute parties and dotty aristocrats do well on the big silver screen? Lucy mulls it over in the company of a woman who can make it sing, if voice it has - Emma Thompson. Shake and vac' that red carpet and let's hear it for Brideshead Revisited .... revisited.

Robin I can see as one of the amusing muses "up" at Cambridge or with his head up there with the "dreaming spires" of Oxford - looking for strato nimbus .. "A forecast, Robin? Oh, doo share!" they'd say and so he will.

See you at 6 unless we all get stuck on the train or in the library. I preferred "Scoop" and "Men at Arms" but I am old-school and less romantic.

Salma loves "Brideshead" but was last seen heading for the Thames with a waterproof yard-stick.

Hope she makes it back so I can sign off.....

Alastair AND Salma.

London Tonight Tonight Friday 26th September 2008

Good afternoon.

My favourite of the monuments In Washington DC is that erected to the memory of Thomas Jefferson - the third President of the US, he was a brilliant man who wrote much of the glorious Declaration of Independence. It is circular, topped with a perfect dome and, in Spring, surrounded by delicious cherry blossom.

Mozart's "Lacrimosa" from his powerful Requiem is one of my favourite pieces of classical music.

And , though not a mathematician, even I can admire the awesome simplicity of Einstein's E=MC2 - the equation that allows us to measure the very energy at the heart of the Universe.

All these hero-geniuses of mine are thought to have suffered from Asperger's syndrome, an extreme form of the disorder autism. Despite that, they did truly great things.

So it left us all gob-smacked when we learned that a private school in Purley which had initially found a place for young sufferer Charles Hall turned him away when he turned up for his first day.

They'd offered him a place, sent him a starter-pack and had banked his parents' cheque for the fees.

There must be an explanation but, like Soliari's jealousy of Mozart and Einstein's quantum mechanics, it is beyond me. Phil plays Dr Barnado to this apparent failure of a young boy.

Also in Washington, fiscal failure, at the time of writing, remains the order of the day. Despite the truly bizarre image of their equivalent of our Alastair Darling going down on one knee to their equivalent of our David Cameron, begging for support for the multi-billion dollar bank rescue package, the package remains "blocked" by Congress.

As Einstein's tiny quarks are to the mighty molecules of mass, so too are the 500 job losses at HSBC's Canary Wharf HQ, to the failure of the Yanks to sort out their toxic banking mess. Like Bradford and Bingley's people yesterday, it leaves men and women, who've done nothing worse than work for less than brilliantly-run banks, on the temporary scrap heap of humanity. Nick offers a shoulder to cry on and a microphone to moan into.

I don't moan about buses, I just don't use them. A woman, queuing for a bus at Waterloo, my station, was struck by an air-conditioning unit that fell from the sky. She survived but is injured. My objection to buses are crowding, inconvenience, noise, smell and "stop-start" progress. This poor woman has dramatically added to my case. Faye, (mid-length black top, slightly easier-on-the-circulation jeans and red piped tiger slippers), says this is in bad taste. I apologise but I think there is still a logic to what I am saying.

Tottenham's current performance sadly doesn't defy logic as the team continues to fail to defy gravity - they are rubbish at the moment and are in the basement of the Premiership, heading for the Championship - a generous way of describing what is really the Second Division of years gone by. Perhaps Juande "One Day... to Go" Ramos has some answers. Paxo is all ears.

Myleene Klass is far from "all ears" - she has "all a beautiful and talented woman" needs, to be a vision of gifted and charming perfection. Partial, me? Yep. I steady my nerves to tell you she is with us, live, in the studio. I don't care what she is talking about -she's been there, done it - yet still finds new frontiers to surge gracefully and elegantly through. I'd hold the door open for her, anytime.

Salma will offer What Not To Miss. It is her birth-right.

James will explore if movie "Righteous Kill" is a "criminal waste of talent" as one of his competitor critics suggests. De Niro and Pacino may take a dim view but, nevertheless we will be answering De Niro's "you looking at me?" question in the affirmative.

Also on James' ballot-paper is "Swing Vote" which features Kevin Costner as the sole US voter upon whom the outcome of the American Presidential election hinges. Given the nature and structure of the US Electoral College which determines victory in that mighty contest, this is nonsense and so, too, is the movie by many accounts. Perhaps it will sink like Waterworld or James may throw it a lifeline. I'll hang on his every word.

Hope you do too, and those of Robin on the weather. It is lovely outside but be sure you are inside at 6. Else all of this will be a waste.

Alastair and Salma

London Tonight Tonight Thursday 25th September 2008

Good afternoon.

If the debate and rapid fire wit at our meeting is anything to go by, tonight's offering is a treat!

Faye, in a charming and really quite grown up polka-dot cocktail dress (she must be going out after the show) is especially excited about the Jaws actor Richard Kiel coming in. "They don't make proper Bond baddies anymore! He was the greatest. And then I saw him in another film and he bit someone in that, as well ! ".

You need to say it all very quickly with an infectious, twinkly smile in your voice to grasp the full flavour of her excitement. She thought the "bloke with diamonds in his face" was quite frightening (in Die Another Day) but he didn't bite anyone, as far as she could remember. And the slowly dying terrorist with a bullet in his head in The World Is Not Enough just burned peoples' hands and threatened to blow up Turkey. So Richard "Jaws" Kiel, she reckons, is the real deal. And we've got him, tonight, just for you.

Then there's the equally dramatic but frighteningly more real story about UCH - where three mysterious deaths are under investigation: "Something's up!" she exclaimed. "That'll be the death rate", I ventured.

One tummy tuck recipient and two cancer patients, out of the blue, gone. Questions will be asked, either of the men and women in white coats, or the men and women with calculators and sharp suits.

 

Talking of attire, it will soon be easier to travel in comfort whatever you are wearing on the Underground as air-conditioning is coming in. Don your Russian fur-hat, and an Astrakhan coat over a fine Italian wool suit and still sit back in comfort as you waft between Amersham and Baker Street. That's if you can get a seat. There's the rub that annoyed our lovely leader-ette: she used to use the Metropolitan Line and says the downside of the upside of air-conditioning is fewer seats, or less seating: I put both in as a good example of when to use "fewer" and when to use "less". Feel free to keep it as an aide memoire.

Ernest Shackleton should have been given an aide memoire along the lines of "The Antarctic is very cold and includes an awful lot of water which, when it gets very cold, freezes". You will recall his ship Endeavour , despite it's best endeavours, didn't make it to the south pole because it got trapped in the freezing ice-water of the southern Oceans. For some bizarre reason his family now wish to re-enact this act of heroic failure. Kenneth Branagh made it look splendidly patriotic in the movie, but so did Michael Caine and his merry band make the debacle of Rookes Drift look like it had an "upside" in 'Zulu' - I remain sceptical but like you, dear viewer, am open to persuasion.

I've no doubt the pupils at Harrow's Sinai School took little persuasion to take part in a live link-up with the International Space Station. Suddenly GCSE physics / general science look interesting. What a chance! What an opportunity! How lucky they have an uncle at NASA! Nepotism is a cruel but accurate word, me thinks; but, perhaps, I am just jealous. I've always wanted to say "Ground control to.... " whoever, even Major Tom.

 

Is that it, I hear you ask in exhausted tones? No. There's Ken Dodd. Faye claims he has sold 100 million albums which may explain "Happiness".

I remember him getting in trouble with the tax man which seems a bit off if you've sold 100,000,000 albums at anything between 19/6d (old money) and £12.99 each... That is an awful lot of tickle sticks even in Notty Ash. Lucy will, I am sure, laugh quite genuinely at the appropriate moments.

 

Robin always makes us laugh, genuinely, whatever the weather.

Papers, and your thoughts on one other story we have tonight: the job losses at Borehamwood as Bradford & Bingley sack more than 300 people. No jokes. Just awfully sad for them.

 

See you at six.

Alastair and Katie.

LONDON TONIGHT TONIGHT

Good Afternoon.

Cyclists: love them or hate them, they certainly divide opinion in the capital. But when another dies in what seems an entirely avoidable collision, we have to sit up and ask some pretty fundamental questions. Why are trucks not fitted, on a complusory basis, with mirrors that give drivers a better view of men and women on bikes? Why do cyclists persist in flouting the rules of the road? Can there be detente outside the cycle lane or are we doomed to reporting this on-going clash of cultures and this tragic loss of life? Harris puts his clips and crash-helmet on and pedals off , looking for answers.

My great uncle Jack and auntie Minnie lived in a prefab in Letchworth. I was always intrigued by the cracks in the external walls - unlike those in crumbling old houses, these were very straight. Only did I realise, sometime later, that they were joins and not cracks - ergo, "pre-fab", as in prefabricated: they were kit homes.

Most have now gone but a cluster in Catford are the subject of a fascinating struggle for survival. The residents want to keep them but the authorities say it is too costly.Who will intervene? Phil is our architectural historian.

From history to the brave new frontier of space travel, and music. Everyone knows the sound-track to 2001: A Space Odyssy was provided by Strauss though he wrote it a century before Arthur C. Clarke wrote the book upon which the movie was based. Now NASA, the US space agency, have come to London for a new sound-track for those who split their infinitives to bravely go where none have gone before. It's a wrap and it's penned by a young astrophysicist at London Uni. Wonder if he consulted Queen's Brian May who has a PhD in astro-physics and still plays the guitar his old man made?

If Toby Young went into space he could use the absence of other life forms as an excuse for his inability to make friends. It is better than the thought that he is just an objectionable ego-maniac, as some have suggested. Anyway, a film has been made of his autobiography and Lucy is on his case. It seems he managed to upset cast members but this may have been method acting on his part. Who knows? Who cares? But the movie sounds good.

Lehman Brothers intentions also sounded good when they said they'd help an after-school club and offer older children a bit of work experience in the darker arts of high finance. Their collapse may have been a result of greed, esoteric capitalism , smoke or mirrors but it has left a whole bunch of kids without the kind help and assistance some of their finer employees freely gave in such a good cause. Ben has a bit of a bottom-lip job with this one.

Chin up as we'll have weather (sneak -preview: one more rotten day and then a bit of autumnal bliss!), papers and your thoughts on cylists and cycling.

Pump up for a gripping 30 minutres, live from 6.

Alastair & Katie.

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London Tonight Tonight Tuesday 23rd September 2008

Good afternoon - I have just listened to Gordon Brown tell the Labour Party to "Man up!". This was not my interpretation nor did I understand the expression until Faye, two-tone grey and in gorgeous black trousers today, used it. It means "get a grip" and apparently "Cowboy up!" is an even harder imperative. So "Man up" I will, not that I think she was getting at me. I hope not.

West Ham "Manned up" wrongly to the tune of two - but Tevez was the real problem and Sheffield United have long since believed it cost them their place in the Premiership. £30m is what they reckon they are owed as a result and now the West Ham board must decide if they are going to cave in or "Cowboy up". Marcus, pleased the Gunners are atop the Premiership currently, appears interested enough to cover the story for you. Well "Manned up" Marcus.

Liz, always one to "Woman up" has the remarkable story of a man convicted of thirteen or fourteen offences, jailed for 23 years only to win a series of appeals that suggest a nasty crim' "Fitted" rather than "Manned" him up. It is complicated but a man's liberty was at stake so you'll be intrigued, I am sure.

A man who will not be looking forward to too much liberty in the near future, I dare say, is the one who donned a phantom of the Opera mask and brutally attacked two women. Short of redeeming features save they got the scumbag, Ben will keep this short, I hope.

Nick has been following in the footsteps of some other London crims who take the commuter track to leafy Surrey only to turn smart homes over, fill their swag backs and beat a hasty retreat back to the big smoke. A "Cowboy up" call, at least, went out this morning when Old Bill came a-knocking on the Surrey - London tourists.

A group of men who just "Man up" as a matter of professional course marched through the City of London today. If they caused traffic chaos no one was objecting. After 6 tours of Iraq and Afghanistan it was the least the Royal Fusiliers were entitled to. Phil looks very smart and is the very model of a modern major general for you.

Dita Von Teese is the ultimate in "Woman up" - sultry, formerly married to a very "rock-and-roll" rock star and the ultimate in saucy burlesque (makes Moulin Rouge look like Croydon. (Maybe that's what attracted Sarkozy to Croydon?) She is in the studio and I am need of cold water and a darkened room in which to unwind.

I may see you at 6 or I may answer Ms Von Teese's instruction to "Man up". In my dreams, dear viewer, in my dreams.

See you there.

Alastair and Salma.

London Tonight Tonight Monday 22nd September 2008

Good evening.

If, as you are watching tonight, your little darlings are doing their homework - tell them to "look away now"! We report on Tiffin Boys' Grammar School in Kingston and their decision to ban homework on the grounds the children should get it all done at school and then go home and relax.

Faye, looking a little city-like in a sharply tailored pin-stripe jacket, but still very "street" with the old leg squeezers, says it's her favourite story of the day but "once you've said it, that's it" she fears. Not, dear Faye, if you are aged 5 to 18 me thinks!

I suspect a very long waiting list next year.

Talking of waiting, the de Menezes family today finally got the inquest they had long demanded into the death of Jean Charles. It is to be hoped the poor, distraught souls have brought their toothbrushes because this one will run and run. Harris is our man on the spot and for him, and I suspect most of you, what is even more interesting than hearing again what happened to poor Jean Charles, is what the findings will mean for the beleaguered Met and their even more beleaguered Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair. Opening skirmishes at 6.

We may be witnessing the opening skirmishes in a revived property market in London. Sellers are asking 4% higher prices than a month ago but buyers are yet to respond. We will ask Louisa where we are and where we may be heading.

Gary Foster thought he was heading for a cure for his testicular cancer when he put himself forward for a drugs trial at University College Hospital London. Instead, a computer glitch left him dead. His mum's reaction is fascinating and humbling. Piers shares it with you.

Points were shared in the match between Reading and Watford at the weekend but shouldn't have been. Watford thought they were heading for a hard-earned three points when a most bizarre thing happened. We are all accustomed to sportsmen screaming, with certainty, that the most unlikely successes be granted to them - "Howzat?" bellow the cricketers when the ball clearly missed the bat or the leg was clearly not in the way of the wicket; rugby players writhe in muddy and bloody agony swearing on their mothers' lives that the ball was over the line before they were brought to a brutal halt; and some football players would put the entire Royal Shakespeare Company out of work with their protesting antics over penalties, off-sides and "our throw-in" issues. Glen explains how a linesman and a referee did "the incredible" and how a manager has offered "the unlikely", by way of compensation.

Finally, and it really is a matter of finality, the eco-graveyard. Does it accelerate our very personal and very final contribution to the nitrogen cycle, I asked? Not entirely, I am told, but headstones are made of biodegradable wood and caskets .... too much news from "the other side" I thought. But it seems they are all the rage in London and the South East so Liz went to meet their maker, firm in the belief that the appointment with her maker is many decades hence. For myself, I am less confident of longevity but I like the idea of trees and shrubs in graveyards rather than frightening Victorian marble gargoyles and angels. It's just the boxes and their contents I am not too good at discussing....

I think that's it , but I've come over all morbid.

So, Chrissie's weather and some silly fashion photography in London's papers may do the trick.

We used to have a studio director, a Scot called Dan, who would wail "We're all doomed", Dad's Army style, when the going got rough. But, philosophically, of course, he was right.

So join us at 6 for a full London Tonight - you have nothing to lose!

Alastair & Katie

London Tonight Tonight Friday 19th September 2008

Good afternoon - sorry to have missed you yesterday but duty called elsewhere. Delighted to be here today to give your weekend the prod it needs towards perfection.

Not done that supermarket sweep of groceries and other necessities yet? Got a party coming up or the birthday of someone you really care about and need to get that "just right" pressie? Well take the A3 out of London and head to Guildford - University and Cathedral city and county town of Surrey. It has some fine shops and the parking is free! It's not as a celebration of some curious medieval "guild" event, but simply because they screwed up their parking regulations. The only downside is that you can expect long faces from any council workers or wardens you bump into, as they owe £600,000 to wrongly-fined punters and can't seem to sort it until winter. Marcus has a pot of yellow paint and lots of plastic envelopes to throw in the bin.

The Police won't trouble you.... unlike Ali Dizaei, himself a copper but, alas, again the focus of some grave concerns. I hasten to add, and without prompting, nothing at all has been proved against him and, indeed, when last the forces of law and order went in pursuit of him, he was totally cleared.

It is a complex tale involving allegation and counter-allegation but Glen will be your guide along the path between the pillar of the tall story, on one side, and the towering edifice of truth on the other.

Then James will review Ben Stiller's production of a Ben Stiller story, starring Ben Stiller - "Tropic of Thunder". Faye, who looks like a bumble bee who fell, first, in a pot of pink paint and, then, in a pot of grey paint -thinks it's rubbish.

(I continue to harbour serious concerns for her - gout can only a be a matter of time, given what those jeans (yet another pair) do to her circulation.)

Salma was as warm towards it as the lower shelf in a very deep freezer; but for James, we shall have to wait to hear. He will also talk about Then She Found Me but I fear I must have fallen asleep at this stage of The Meeting as I have no notes - a journey of discovery for both of us, then, dear viewer.

David Essex I didn't need to make notes about as I was a fan, as a teenager, and my dear wife remains a fan in her golden period. But how old does that make him?

Anyway, a musical is planned along the lines of Queen and Abba though, truth to tell, we could only think of two Essex songs and even then very few of the words. I am sure Lucy will have done better as she will not have been troubled by much of the back-story. Rock On was one song, but I thought that was followed by "....Tommy!" and was a catch phrase of Little and Large..? Maybe not.

Some football, including the Hammers under new management against Newcastle without management; Robin's weather (looking good but I won't tempt fate); and the newspapers which will tell what is on this weekend but not as crisply as Salma in what has surely now become her What Not To Miss . I do not miss it. What one never had, and all that.

I am content and, to be frank, resigned.

See you, I hope., at 6.

Alastair (not Frank: that was a figure of speech) & Salma.

London Tonight Tonight Thursday 18th September 2008

Evening all,

I had to get a cab back home last night from the office party (it was fine as office parties go, probably more fun for those without a giant bump to heft around..) and it did cross my mind, as I was sitting in the back, to wonder if this thing catches fire how quickly will I be able to leap out. Well, according to one of the cabbies we've been interviewing today, you'd have to be pretty sharp about it. He reckoned it took just 45 seconds for his ENTIRE cab to be engulfed in flames. A dozen London taxis have now gone up like fireworks. Yesterday we told you how the manufacturers are recalling the entire batch of 500 for safety checks. After yet another spontaneously combusted last night, they have now pulled them all off the road with immediate effect.

Rather worryingly it seems no-one has been able to work out what's wrong with them. We''ll be asking, if that's the case - how can they be sure that it's not going to happen again and what if next time the cab is full of passengers.... and children.... and bags.... 45 seconds is really not a long time to make an escape, is it?

 

The other thing last night's cabbie was telling me was that business was as busy as ever. He was taking that as a sign that the banking crisis wasn't as bad as everyone was making out. Although I liked getting a free economics analysis with my ride, I fear he could be wrong. It's certainly looking bleak for HBOS employees. Tonight they are hearing that post the merger with Lloyds TSB the majority of job cuts are likely to be here in the South East and some are estimating that 40, 000 jobs are at risk. That's not all, even banking giants Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs are looking wobbly. Their share prices have been plunging and it's rumoured they are looking for partners, which could be bad news for some of their 10,000 plus workers. Not to mention the ripple effect for all the London companies who do business with the city banks - restaurants, shops, and yes black cabs. We'll bring you the latest from the square mile.

You might well need something to laugh about after that - so we've also been talking to Pamela Anderson. Not that I am saying the ex-Baywatch babe with interesting taste in men, is a figure of fun - far from it. In fact, Lucy reports that she is actually very funny with hilarious tales to tell. Find out what she does with her old bikinis, and why Hugh Heffner needs a good slap.

And our editor's favourite story of the day - four year old Ellie May who had her first day at school this week. A bit daunting for any little one but Ellie May breezed it - pretty amazing considering she has neither arms nor legs after a horrible battle with meningitis. She's a brilliant girl and she'll be telling us herself just how it all went.

Don't miss a minute of it. See you at six,

Romilly and Ben

London Tonight Tonight Wednesday 17th September 2008

Hello,

I woke up thinking that today was Friday, it was a very rude shock to realise it really isn't. It does though give me something to look forward to I suppose, which is more than can be said for hundreds of our Black Cab drivers. Hundreds of them stand to be out of work from Friday - for how long none of us know. Taxis have been randomly going up in flames at all hours of the day, no-one thankfully has been injured, but that appears to be more down to good luck than anything else. You can judge for yourselves as we have footage of one of the cabs on fire. It's some sort of fault affecting taxis built in the last two years at a certain plant ... made all the worse by the fact that the manufacturer has known about the problem for at least three months. Many many questions - Jon Gilbert attempts to find the answers.

Someone who has had enough of asking questions is Herbie Crossman. He's an OAP who feels that pensioners are being ignored during this credit crunch ... Rather than give up though .. He's making his own very public protest - dangling from a crane. Confused? All will be made clear at 6!

Now - it's 5 and a half weeks since we were all glued to our screens watching that incredible opening ceremony in Beijing .. . I say 'we' - my esteemed co-presenter watched it firsthand while being fed dim sum by Asian beauties (maybe I made that last bit up). So it's hard to believe that the entire Olympic Games is now over - for another four years. Team GB ended the Paralympics with an astonishing haul - 102 medals - second on the table only to China, what a truly amazing achievement. Mayor Boris says he's determined that London will lead the way for disabled athletes in 2012, not just in the sporting arenas but with our infrastructure too. So how much work is there to be done? Rachel Millichip travels around our Capital with one wheelchair user and his family to see how accessible the city really is.

Plus we introduce you to another finalist in our Teacher of the Year competition, and Lucy gets to hang out with John Hannah and Philip Seymour Hoffman - two very fine actors who are gracing the West End - one on stage, one directing.

Plenty to get you thinking about this Wednesday evening (still not Friday yet? oh well..). See you at 6.

Salma and Alastair

London Tonight Tonight Tuesday 16th September 2008

Good afternoon.

This is late and I am sorry.

I wrote 200 words, left it in the electronic out-tray and it went missing. Doesn't matter - one stream of consciousness is much the same as any other, I'd say. At least it didn't contain the names, national insurance numbers and banking details of anyone - or any eighteen thousand people like the discs that were left in the out-tray at Whittington NHS Trust. "What, again?", I hear you say. Yep. Lewis Vaughan Jones is beginning to wonder what is safe these days and puts on a white coat to have a bit of a probe.

When I studied economics there was an intriguing concept called the "velocity of circulation" - how many times the same pound coin is spent is an interesting measure of economic activity. Well, in Canary Wharf rather a lot of pound coins are remaining firmly at the bottom of some rather well-tailored trouser pockets and some elegant clutch bags and purses. A lot are not spending much because they are of The Lehman 5000. Greedy prats who brought it upon themselves is one view - fall guys for the real "Ess Aitch Won Tees" in America is another I am not entirely out of sympathy with. Anyway, the morning after the night before and we are journalism's equivalent to Resolve for the city boys and girls with a real hangover. Glen - (did you know "shorting" meant selling what you've not got only to buy back at an even lower price, sell and then make a profit?) - Goodman is on the abacus.

No abacus in sight as we reveal our second would-be teacher of the year - an RC RE man and a DH, Faye says. Her stunning red coat is draped across her chair which is currently empty. I do not know where she is, and I am missing her. The coat reminds me of an elite Czarist regiment and I fear for the masses.

Bordeaux is a beautiful region of central western France which produces what purport to be the five greatest wines in the world , one of which is Haut Brion - it is a bastardisation of O'Brian - believe me - but they thought it wouldn't sell. It is also the name of a French team about to beaten by the Blues tonight as I hope Ned will shortly confirm.

Katie has spent the afternoon with Jason Donovan who has taken to dressing like a Brazilian fruit seller who is also a woman of ill-repute. She will explain as only KD can.

Lucy , out on the pull again, has secured Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Junior but, after Robert De Niro, these are mere shadows. All are on the red carpet for Tropic of Thunder which Faye doesn't seem over-enthusiastic about especially Ben's role therein: written, produced and directed by Mr. BS - "Jack of all trades but is he master of any???" the Czarina was heard to mutter.

I now fear for us all.

See you at 6.

Alastair and Katie

Monday 15th September

Good afternoon.

 

The likelihood is that many of you hadn't heard of Lehman Brothers before things got decidedly nasty in global financial circles and, even then, it may have remained a bit of a mystery. But if you are trying to get a mortgage, raise a loan, are expecting a private pension on retirement, work for a restaurant, clothier, cab company, wine merchant or any one of the thousands of companies quoted on the London Stock Exchange, chances are you are about to feel the ill wind of Lehman' bankruptcy. For nearly five thousand people, many of them possibly among you, the impact is ultimately brutal: they have been sacked, lost their jobs, are out on their ears - and may not even get this weeks wedge. Big company? $600, 000,000,000 in assets, employing well over 20,000 people, world wide, of whom nearly 5000 worked here in London at their European HQ. Yes, very big.

 

What does it feel like to go from being a Master of the Universe, invincible Ferrari owning, Fat Duck eating, Ralph Lauren wearing, Chateau Petrus sipping financial super-star to being handed your P45 by an accountant you've never even met? Wives, husbands, mums, dads and children - all caught up in the maelstrom. We will have their story tonight as we report on what happens when capitalism's highest earning "wage-slaves" get dumped.

 

Oliver Kingonzila was on his way to becoming famous as a footballer ; Barnet FC were keen and he'd already captained the English Colleges side. Instead, he'll go down in history as the 26th young man to be stabbed in London in 2008. We hear from his distraught family.

 

Meredith Kercher could have been on the way to becoming an academic super-star or anything, infact: she was a very bright Surrey girl on an exchange study trip in Italy when something ghastly went wrong. She ended up dead and several other young people are in the frame for her bizarre death. One of them is Amanda Knox - dubbed in the popular press as "Foxy Knoxy" though I doubt anyone else calls her that. Her parents have been talking to ITV for tonight's Tonight. We'll hear a little of what is on their minds at this difficult time for Meredith's family and, whatever their daughter did or did not do, this difficult time for them.

 

In part two we will raise your spirits, I think: you probably need it after that little lot!

 

First we have the first of our films featuring the finalists in our Teacher of The Year competition. Not many leather elbow pads, chalk-dust nor mortar-boards these days but compassion, inspiration and affection by the bucket full. It is a tough call to chose, as you'll see, but a pleasing and elevating experience we hope you'll agree. Pay attention at the back and put those apples away - no bribery permitted.

 

Next a showbiz double bill to make Jonathon Ross and Graham Norton green with envy: Josh Harnett tells us why he wanted to take on the Tom Cruise role in the movie Rain Man in its brilliant transfer, as a play, to the London stage. His status as "something of a hottie" appears to have provoked many of the team to come in on "days-off".

 

Also causing a bit of barging and queue jumping for the better seats is Mr. Will Young who drops by, too. He has a new single and a new album out but I agree with those who say he is also a nice chap and well worth a few minutes of your attention, any day, refreshed discography or not.

 

The London Papers which, in the near future may be being handed out or sold by a few former investment bankers; plus, the weather which won't risk touching upon clouds having silver linings nor storm clouds gathering - enough, already!

 

Katie and I hope you can join us and, if you work for Lehman's or know someone who does, we are genuinely sorry.

 

 

 

Alastair & Katie

 

 

Friday 12th September

Good afternoon.

 

From a teenager with cystic fibrosis, losing out on the holiday of a life-time , to West Ham , seeing their principal sponsor going broke, it doesn't get much worse. In the wake of several low-cost and Business only airlines hurtling towards Carey Street at just under the speed of sound, XL became the biggest casualty of the aviation industry's shrink fest, bought on by spiralling oil prices and the general economic depression. They are the country's 3rd biggest tour operator or, pedantically, were. They ran out of money before they ran out of passengers and, as Hamlet said, "there in lies the rub". One of those passengers-to-be is our heart-broken teenager, now going nowhere. We will be talking to him and his lovely parents at 6.

 

For West Ham, every silver lining has a cloud wrapped round it - they finally secure the services of Zola only to lose their sponsor. Non- Hammers will mock but others will share in the claret and blue flood of tears flowing in some parts of the news-room. But Ken, (who really does know) says it is fine: Zola will rapidly attract a new sponsor who will pay even more than an airline poised to go broke. Think Emirates, think happiness, he says.

 

If you are a disappointed XL passengers you might just think a dirty weekend in Paris would bring a smile back to your face or the more moral among you might think a bus ride to Hampstead or Richmond Park might lift your spirits and distract you from your woes.

 

Well, as Robin may be wont to say later - it never rains but it pours: "First" buses remain on strike and threaten more; and the Channel Tunnel fire is out but so are all services for the next few days, at least. So you can't do either of those, either..

 

You know what? Like a good Calvinist, why don't you just accept it - there's nothing you can do. Tune in to a bumper bundle of TV fun - we are your friends and saviours!

We have films - James reviews a powerful piece based on one of the most moving books I have ever read, "The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas" - the chilling clue is in the title; and "Eden Rock", the ads for which suggest a 50's romance but the reality of which is something Stephen King would be proud of.

 

We've "What Not To Miss" - now the delicious Faye is with us for the first time tonight and, being the gentleman I am, I have suggested she might like to present this essential guide to what to do in this, the greatest capitol in the world.... so long as you don't want to leave it by XL, get round it on a bus or use one of it's finest termini as a spring-board to Autumn in north west Europe. So she will.

 

Gazza is not the sort of fellow who has led a life that would lead you to think he even had a manager. His has been an utterly unmanaged, chaotic and catastrophically peripatetic lurch from triumph to tragedy. No one could have managed that, surely? I am told Mel Stein did and that he has written a book about a fictitious London football club, too. Perhaps he wrote it when he should have been keeping an eye on the Watery Eyed One.... anyway, he's in at 6 as well.

 

We'll have papers full of holiday heart-break; weather prospects to lift your gloom or confront the truth; and we'll have your thoughts on the trials and travails of transport and travel.

 

Faye has just popped downstairs to make -up so let me just whisper, while she's away, that she is lovely and very good. You will enjoy her company as will I , at 6.

 

See you there.

 

 

Alastair and ...oops, she's back! ( Ssshhhhh ! must dash....)

 

London Tonight Tonight Thursday 11th September 2008

Hello,

I remember going on my first holiday without my parents: my excitement and their attempts not to appear too worried. It's the sort of scene that must have played out in the Brennan household when 18 year old Daniel left for his first holiday abroad with his friends. But what started as a boys' holiday has ended as a family vigil. Daniel is fighting for his life in a hospital in Kos - his parents at his bedside. He was given a quad bike way too powerful for him to manage - and it crashed with devastating consequences. Ronke Phillips spoke to young Daniel's family at Gatwick airport before they boarded their flight.

Another tragedy - this time in Essex makes it into our programme tonight. A mother who buried her daughter in Basildon last year has been told she must chop her plot in half, because its size breaks health and safety laws. A shock and an outrage you may think, but the cemetery says "rules is rules" and the elderly and disabled visitors to the graveyard should get the same rights as the rest.

Lewis Vaughan Jones will have a tough time representing both sides - but objectively he will do just that. And then we'll be asking you what you think!

And just when you thought councils couldn't get any worse - check this one out! A councillor from Kentish Town who's swanned off to Arizona (that's the American state next to Nevada, you know with line dancing and cacti (is that the plural of cactus)... Anyway, he's still claiming hundreds of pounds every month in expenses for his job back here! Glen says "Oh No You Don't!" at six.

But we say "Oh Yes You Do" to Theo Walcott. Arsenal's bright hope put himself well and truly on the England map last night in Zagreb. Of course, us seasoned Londoners with an eye on the Premiership have known for some time that young Theo was a talent just waiting to emerge... Now we've been proven right, we've sent dedicated Gooner Marcus Powell to wax lyrical on the delights of the new Number 7!

We'll play Spy Games on Waterloo Bridge, and Star Games at the Mobo's...

And then the moment Alastair and I have been waiting for. We're both so excited to meet Terry Pratchett - a man with an extraordinary brain for storytelling, now struggling to come to terms with the prospect of the cruel and destructive force of Alzheimer's. He's got TWO brilliant books coming out, and we're chatting to him in the studio.

I was going to say there was more... But I feel if that's not enough for you... I'd be wasting my time!

See you at six.

Salma and Alastair