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22.8.06

LONDON TONIGHT: Tuesday August 22nd


Hello!

The whole spectrum of news in London Tonight this evening.

We've got the the very latest on the eleven people in court today over the alleged airliner bomb plot.
Tight security surrounded the convoys that snaked their way to the hearings at City of Westminster Magistrates Court.

We've also got remarkable pictures from the opening day of London's first camp specifically for overweight children.
Levels of obesity among the capital's youngsters are rising and one in four is now considered overweight.
The week-long camp will educate children about the benefits of keeping fit and eating healthily.

What do you do if you've got a parking space and no car?
Not a joke, but it IS a way to earn some serious money - as you'll find out.

And it could be among your worst nightmares.
A friend comes to stay for a few days - and weeks later, they're well and truly wearing out their welcome.
Well, that's exactly what happens in a new film 'You, Me and Dupree', which has its London premiere this evening.
One of its stars, Kate Hudson, WON'T be on the red carpet, to avoid any questions about her marriage split.
But fingers crossed, our reporter Steve Hargrave will to catch upwith Dupree himself, Owen Wilson.

T&W

21.8.06

LONDON TONIGHT: Mon 21st August


Good Afternoon,

First tonight....do you live in Haringey? If so, do you or WOULD you leave you front door unlocked or even open ? Well the Met Police Chief Sir Ian Blair has given an interview seeming to suggest that that is a safe thing to do. We'll bring you all the details on that story but we also want to know what you think....In today's capital city is it a crazy idea ... or do you think we ARE winning the fight against crime.

We also report on a new spat over a old scandal. Remember Dame Shirley Porter - who masterminded the "votes for homes" scheme back in the 80s. It led to the disgraced peer being ordered to pay back 22 million pounds to Westminster council. Now Mayor Ken Livingstone wants another pound of flesh. He's asked the Attorney General to see if there are charges that could be brought against Dame Shirley.

If you're charging up your power drill as we speak ahead of the bank holiday check out today's property piece...an expert gives us some top tips.

Win tickets to the Carling Weekend Reading Festival....where you can muck about in the mud while listening to The Arctis Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand that the Kaiser Chiefs.

And Chrissie's messing about on the river...she's fallen hook, line and sinker for a fisherman's life and she's found some really unusual place in our capital to enjoy her new hobby. Watch out for her wellies, they're something special !

That's your lot

See you at 6

Ben and Tamzin

18.8.06

LONDON TONIGHT TONIGHT: Fri Aug 18th

Good Afternoon!

Fridays we like and we hope you do, too.

Do'nuts at tea-time, What not to Miss and then home for the weekend.
Hurray!
So let's try and get you in the right frame of mind, too.

Some of us are going to the V Festival at Chelmsford this weekend, (the Boss is buying new wellies!) some to the Rolling Stones (Alastair won't shut up about it!) and others to the first Premiership games of the season (too many to mention!)

So, Martyn will be telling you what the weather will be like but we start with a great story for any one who may have paid over the odds for footy tickets.
Chelsea are introducing a trial scheme to mop up any spare tickets at a set price while trying to squeeze out the ghastly touts. Sharon is at the Bridge.

Tamzin has spent the afternoon with the lovely Alesha, she of Mis-Teeq fame, who's been nominated for a MOBO. So she'll be introducing her own chat with the star, this evening.

James is here and will be passing a celluloid slide-rule over Snakes On A Plane and John Tucker Must Die - seems hard on John but let's hope it doesn't involve snakes.....

Marcus is previewing the Premiership but, be warned, there will be a lot of Arsenal as well as our other great teams, including the Premiership Champs themselves, in Gooner Powell's report...

Pete Doherty has been in court again and sadly we agree it isn't really news but the judge threatening him with jail this time is..so we'll have that too.

Plus a full report on the Muslim Debate about what the Islamic Community is doing about terrorism in its midst: Piers has been listening...

So all the news, all the fun and "all" the sport, if you're a Gooner - "some" of the sport, if you're not!

Anyway, lots of reasons to be with us at 6.

A and T

17.8.06

LONDON TONIGHT: Thursday Aug 17


Good Afternoon,

Nearly the weekend - and for many youngsters in the capital it'll be a weekend of celebration.

The A Level results are out - and they're good - in fact for the 24th year running they're the best results ever. One in four grades was an A.....and of course that means the traditional dumbing-down debate has kicked off. Meanwhile - it seems the popularity of the Baccalaureate is rising here in the capital. Could this be the answer for the critics of the A Level ?

Also - are our hospitals geared up to deal with a major incident ? Since the July 7th bombings that's become an increasingly important question...and it seems the anwer is no. A new study has found that most senior doctors admit they're not prepared to deal with another emergency like that one.

Fancy a day mucking out monkeys or washing wallabies ? Well if that's the kind of animal magic that tickles your fancy you're in luck because London Zoo are now selling tickets to do just.

Chelsea fans, we're getting Frank with Mr Lampard..Paul Larsmon chats to the Blues hero about his career so far.

And ....If you're already planning your bank holiday weekend - and have a DIY project in mind - then our compeition could come in very useful...

All of that and the rest of the capital's breaking news at 6.

A and T

16.8.06

LONDON TONIGHT: Wed August 16th

Hello

Tonight a story that might get your goat (more on goats later with Chrissie by the way)...but this is a tale we can't quite believe in the London Tonight office.

Vince Cipollone went away for a month on business, leaving his car, fully taxed and MOT'd, parked perfectly legally outside his North London home. When he got back the car was gone. Stolen you might think. No. towed away by Haringey Council. Now he's struggling to get it back AND being charged for the privilege of having it in the pound. Well we're trying to get to the bottom of this for Vince. We'll have the full story at 6.

Also....TFL's new TV ad campaign. It's suposed to tell us to check our routes before we travel to make sure engineering works or the like aren't going to hold us up. Critics say it's a waste of millions of pounds of tax payers money. What do you think?

The MOBO awards are on their way...we'll give you the lowdown on the nominees AND give to the chance to go....

It's a big night for John Terry...we go back to the new England Captain's Dagenham routes...and ask, is Barking and Dagenham a breeding ground for leaders ? Coucil big wigs seem to think it is.

And of course those goats we mentioned. They're cute, they're very rare and they're live with Chrissie later. Hope she's got her wellies on !

See you at 6.

A & T

15.8.06

LONDON TONIGHT: Tuesday Augist 15th


Afternoon,

It's been six days since the alleged plane bomb plot was foiled. The knock-on effects are STILL causing problems. But now everybody's starting to count the cost.

Passengers have not only had holidays disrupted but many, it seems, have lost their bags. For the airlines and BAA the questions are...Who's to blame and who's going to foot the bill, will it end up being the passengers ? We'll be putting those questions to the spokespeople of two major airlines.

Away from that....The fantastic tale of an off duty policeman who was in the right place at exactly the right time to save a life. Steve Edmed was having a heart attack as Dale Opensaw rode past on his bike. Dale administered CPR. Steve is now recovering in hospital. Liz has been to speak to them both.

We take our last look at the lessons we can learn from Athens in the 2012 build-up. Today's focus could be especially interesting to you if you live in Stratford....

If your a Kasabian fan - a treat. We're backstage with the band at Brixton Academy just before they go on.

And if you fancy going to the MOBO awards we've a great competition for you.

All that and Chrissie with the weather, what more could you want.

See you at 6'Oclock

A and T

14.8.06

LONDON TONIGHT TONIGHT: Monday August 14th

Hi - from Alastair and Tamzin!

We hope you had a good weekend. Lots of people, this end, needed the break after the tension of the Damilola verdict on Wednesday and then the amazing story about the alleged airliner bomb plot on Thursday and Friday.

And, perhaps no surprise, the people running our airports still have their under-garmets in a twist over safety: Government Ministers were saying one thing while the boss at Heathrow said another. It's pretty well sorted now but we've the Big Boss of the British Airports Authority on the programme to ask why, when it concerns something as fundamental as airline safety, it wasn't a Rolls-Royce operation.
Lots of you may still have a holiday to take and we know lots of you work at the airports or for the airlines so we think you'll want to know. Ben will have all the very latest details.

A gruesome story that shook us all last week was the suggestion that the Croydon garden of a convicted paedophile may hide the remains of two youngsters. Well, today the police start the ghastly business of proving or disproving that suggestion: Jon is there for you.

Simon is still in Athens reflecting on the lessons that London 2012 can learn from the most recent Games. It's a stunning city and Simon's produced a beautiful piece: you'll enjoy it.

Define the classic female cat-walk model: six-foot-something; size six or eight; East London accent, aristocratic looks......
It's all a lot of tired cliches isn't it?
But that is the sort of image that dominates the market and especially the glossy mags. Well, a new agency on the block plans to shake that up a bit by giving the beautiful women of the sub-continent a better break. Ronke's been strutting her stuff with the wonderful women of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh who certainly aren't too sexy for the cat-walk....

Plus, a look at helping those in low wage employment get a home even if their "take-home" isn't all it might be....

And Chris on the victims of flash flooding in Chobham with Chrissie on why it happened and whether it will happen again.

See you at 6!

A&T

11.8.06

LONDON TONIGHT TONIGHT: Fri 11th August

Good afternoon.

I am so sorry this is later than usual but it has been another of those days!
The trials and tribulations of yesterday, what with the bomb plot, house searches and arrests, rolled over into today. What threatened to be the most devastating attack involving our biggest airport is still sending shock-waves across the capital - for people planning their holidays and for people who work at the airport, especially those who work for airlines.

Tonight, we'll keep you right up to date on the investigations, with Walthamstow still a hub of that police and security work.
We take a look at what it means for the tourist industry because we know a lot of you work in travel, hospitality and tourism.
And we take another look at what it has been like trying to fly out of London's airports today.

But perhaps the most important thing we are doing tonight is to look at what it means to be a Muslim living in London: most are law-abiding members of our richly diverse community. Some are willing to take their lives to take others' lives. What puts you in either camp if you are a Muslim? Can you make the distinction, in your mind and in your heart, if you are not a Muslim? We'll talk to a leading Muslim and invite your opinions, the most powerful of which we'll read out at the end of the show.

As always on a Friday, Tamzin will have her little master-piece What Not to Miss; James takes a look at the movies and Steve Hargrave, from ITV Entertainment, also takes a look at Lady in the Water, an intriguing new movie which some love but many hate.

Nearly the Last Time to win tickets for the Stones, a week on Sunday...
... And Chrissie's weather.

What more could you want?

See you at 6!

A and T

10.8.06

LONDON TONIGHT TONIGHT: Thurs 10th August


Good Evening.

It's Stuart here again - I'm the Editor and I'm writing this because Alastair is rather busy at Heathrow right now.

It was flashed by the Press Association at 05:57 this morning. They send stories - or "wires" - to newsrooms around the country.
The flash this morning read:

PA-1 POLICE Terror
A major terrorist plot to allegedly blow up aircraft in mid-flight has been
thwarted in a joint pre-planned intelligence led operation by the Met's
anti-terrorist branch and security service, the Metropolitan Police said today.
end

That pretty much set up the day.

Tonight - Alastair's live at Heathrow with the latest as it unfolds.

We'll bring you the story of the day. The latest on the police operation. We're in High Wycombe where ordinary looking suburban homes are being searched.
We'll show you how Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted were brought to a virtual standstill. And we'll have advice for those due to travel in the next few days.

It's an extraordinary story - join us for a special programme tonight - and the ITV Evening News follows straight after us with even more.

That's an hour of special coverage - only on ITV1 from six.

Stuart

9.8.06

LONDON TONIGHT TONIGHT: Weds 9th August

Hello

Dramatic developments this afternoon as the verdicts came back in the Damilola Taylor manslaughter trial - Danny Preddie guilty; Ricky Preddie guilty.
Finally, six years after that beautiful, smiling little boy was stabbed in the leg and left to bleed to death in a Peckham stairwell, justice for his family.
We'll be live in Peckham and Ronke Phillips - who's followed this tragic case from the start, has the detail.

And Jon Gilbert has an incredible exclusive interview on those macabre claims that a suburban house in Croydon could have the bodies of two children buried in the back garden. Can't say much more at the moment.

Simon's been to Athens to see what lessons we can learn about how to make our Olympic Games a success - and two years since theirs ended, you'll be shocked at the state of some of their venues.

We're giving away more Rolling Stones tickets - we're too good to you!

See you at 6.
Al & Nina

LONDON TONIGHT TONIGHT: Tues 8th August 2006

Hello.

It's the Editor here, just for a change, as Alastair and Nina are
preparing for a busy programme right now.

As I write this we're still getting the full details of a really nasty
accident on the M25 - the story that's emerging is not a nice one. Glen
will be live with the latest.

We're also live in Croydon where a garden is set to be dug up by police
- following a tip off that human remains are buried there. The pensioner
who used to live at the house was jailed for abusing children.

Also tonight - the streets where rubbish is piling up because of a
strike by refuse operators - or binmen, as they used to be known. It's
causing a right stink. Literally.

Plus we're pitchside ahead of Arsenal's game tonight, and Patrick Swayze
is in the studio. Yes, him off Dirty Dancing. But please, no one say
anything about baby being in the corner. It's been said in the newsroom
about a thousand times today.

Our Rolling Stones competition was so popular last night - we're doing
it all again tonight.

Join Alastair and Nina at six.

Stuart