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

 

London Tonight Tonight Wednesday 10th September 2008

Good afternoon or bon apres-midi!

There is the most glorious French twist to our show tonight which I will share with you a little later. Suffice to say, at this stage, that it involves the former squeeze of the author of "You Look Wonderful Tonight"; a suburb with a thing about trams; and a cheeky dinner invitation to the most powerful man in Europe, until the rotating presidency rotates again.

That should hook the political ones among you while I reckon "Wonderful" should do the trick for the rest.

Before all that we've another very difficult mess down at the Yard. Well two, in fact. The family of Mark Saunders - the divorce lawyer shot by Police to stop him, they say, from shooting up Chelsea, several of its very attractive buildings and a few of it's residents - have gone to Court to challenge the impartiality and efficacy of the independent inquiry into the event. Among their objections, the fact that coppers can compare "notes" before they make "notes" about what happened. The other: he was found gripping his gun in the hand he doesn't use for any sort of exertion.

Meantime, Ali G used to get a laugh with "Is it cos I is black" until people remembered the true power and meaning of satire and irony... apart from Richard Madeley. Put bluntly, Tarique Ghaffur reckons he hit a white ceiling because he is Asian and now the most senior Muslim woman at the Met reckons she is the victim of racism and bullying for similar reasons. Now, either a bandwagon is rolling or there is something fundamentally wrong with the way our Police force is being run. Nick has been trawling the canteens, the interview rooms and the cells for answers.

The parents of a teenager who went on holiday with his mates to Kos want some answers, too. The lad tried to hire a 50cc Quad bike - my youngest has one and they perform like aero-dynamic lawn mowers. But when it didn't start he was given a 250cc Quad - (I have a 350cc myself and they go like "what the roses love" off a "digging implement"). He was a novice and is in a coma, having careened into a tree. Your thoughts, please, on freedom of the individual and, I imagine, the lunacy of those of us who own and enjoy Quad bikes.

I neither own a football club nor do I especially enjoy the game. But I love it when it yields tension, crises and charismatic clashes - Abramovich vs The Special One; Sir Alan Sugar and the White Hart Lane lads; Louise Redknapp interviewing Harry Redknapp while Jamie Redknapp played in England vs The Rest of The World - then it all comes alive. Whoever the genius is behind the signing of former Chelsea icon Zola to be the new manager of West Ham, should write scripts for the Two Ronnies or The Fast Show. Genius! Makes Little Britain look pedestrian. Marcus, still a grinning Gooner, mocks all concerned. Faye, festooned in flowing grey and another pair of extraordinary, capillary crushing jeans, kept calling the new manager "Budd", after the barefoot South African runner, only to say she kept getting him muddled up with Vialli. "What do I know?" she asked. A silence fell, blended with affection and forgiveness.

I thought Zola was a great French writer - Dreyfuss and all that but maybe that was Vialli.

Now to our "amuse bouche" of a story: little Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the Republic of France and rotating President of the EU, says he wants his troubled suburbs to be born again as "les petites Croydons". You remember the French suburbs? They burned worryingly well and he said the aggressors should be hosed off the streets: hoodies of Croydon be warned! This could become a two-way thing. Anyway, a local businessman in Croydon has invited little Nic to "un grand repas" to discuss the matter... on condition la belle Carla accompanies him. Jon explores the viability of this new "entente cordiale".

We also have a little girl who break-dances. Many adore it. Some feel a little uneasy. You, as ever, are better arbiters than any of us - and it is certainly a great achievement for a delightful family. But the music? Oh, go on, give it a whirl.

Lucy is talking to Nick Moran (a "hottie" according to Faye - a word for which I can find no translation but she tells me it is how I might describe Madame Sarkozy in an unguarded moment) about the London film festival and his latest offering.

Faye's final offering to the meeting was to say, of the Met' stories, " Grande merde dans petit Chine!". No, me neither. Good thing I adore her and only have O-level French.

Chrissie shines with her weather; London's papers continue to harm Brazil but for a higher cause - your information; and that is it.

See you at 6.

Alastair and Katie.

London Tonight Tonight Tuesday 9th September 2008

Good afternoon.

Jack Welch, who used to run General Electric, once one of the biggest and still one of the most profitable companies in the world, believed all organisations should "churn" 10% if its workforce every year: 10% out, a new 10% in. Middle and senior managers would occasionally show up on a Monday only to find that their name plaque had been taken off their door and someone else's put in it's place: they had "gone". It was brutal but it was efficient.

What is not efficient is to decide that one of your most senior people, who happens to be locked in an employment row with you, has to be suspended only for that decision to be announced by someone else before you've got your two-penneth in. We even got it on the lunchtime edition of London Today - a report on a reaction to something that hadn't yet been formally announced!

You might recover if the body that exists to keep an eye on your manor says it backs your decision: but it can't get much worse if, instead, they have already pre-empted your decision, by 24 hours, with a statement that suggests the grounds for what you have in mind do not even exist...

If you fear you are being followed by a stranger on your way home tonight or if you think someone is trying to break into your home, be warned: the people who are in charge of making you feel safe and keeping you safe are the same people who have done all the above. Glen who, after last night, knows his "a..." from his "elbows" has been trying to fathom what is going on in the shambles that is The Met' vs Tarique Ghaffur.

Oh well, at the end of the day we can all get on our bus or descend to our tube and head home for a warm and reassuring mug of coffee or a chilled shot of 40 degree proof vodka, if we happen to work at the Met. London's celebrated Transport system - efficient, well run and now well funded will take us away from all this.

I'd call a cab if I were you: hot on the heels of the fare rises, due to the little matter of an above ground 80 million pound black hole, along come repair cowboys Tubelines so say they seem to have lost about £1.7 bn (yes that is a 'b' not a 'm') as they went about their subterranean meanderings. Metronet went ages ago and with it even more of your dosh - the whole thing threatens to be heading for hell in a hand-cart, unless the hand-cart is maintained by TfL in which case nothing will be going anywhere at this rate. Phil, a Richmond man who favours taking a boat on the Thames over a bus or a tube anytime, reviews the evidence for the charge that "they couldn't organise an act of collective inebriation in an ale factory".

 

Which begs the question "Boris". Not a question, as such, but, like the particles the giant European collider will start searching for tomorrow, he is the sort of common, but as yet unproven, thread. Boris, the Higgs bosun of local government, wants to run everything in London. Do today's shambles prove no one person can, or that it is about time someone did? Ben has been gazing at the oracle but as I look at him across the newsroom he still looks more Socrates than Aristotle: but there may be a 'eureka' moment by 6. He continues to phone and talk to all manner of people.

Faye is sporting a silver -grey T-shirt bearing the legend The Rolling Stones across the front. I have noticed nothing else about her sartorial choices today as this is, for me, the zenith , the apogee, nirvana (the meditative objective, not the rock group!) - one of my favourite people adorned with an item of clothing adorned, itself, with the name of the greatest rock and roll band in the world. Should it happen, I will die happy tonight. Hopefully it won't so I'll press on.

If the European collider goes wrong they could create a black hole and then we'll all disappear. It has even been argued in court! Assuming we are still here on Thursday, the property market may have also endured a Big Bang and be back to where it was. I doubt it. The only glimmer of sub-atomic vibrancy is in the buy-to-let market. Louisa takes you to the fifth dimension in which all this will make sense.

Finally an Essex gal who will spend £30,000 to become a Hollywood star, and some young people who have already done that only to sound very strange, according to Salma, in something called "Camp Rock".

All this is beyond me and I remain happier to talk of Police policy and sub-atomic physics, both of which I am a bit of a dab hand at.

I leave Camp Rock and Essex girls to Salma - a first, I suspect, for both of us.

See you at six.

Alastair and Salma

London Tonight Tonight Monday 8th September 2008

Good evening.

Hope you had a good weekend and weren't drenched or kept up too late, watching Andy Murray. Are we in danger of becoming a nation of sporting greats, once again?

5 - 0 in cricket's One Day series against South Africa; 4 - 3 in the UNICEF charity football match against the rest of the world. And ,were it not for the Italians ability to bribe F1 marshalls, we'd have had Lewis Hamilton's victory in Belgium to celebrate. Ferrari are wonderful but give us McClaren supporters a fair crack of the whip, Mr. Mosely! No double entendre intended, Max.

And what about cycling? After the able bodied aces of two wheels did so brilliantly in Beijing at the regular Olympics, our equally brilliant disabled pedallers only go and do it at the Paralympics at the weekend, too. If only our sports administrators and 2012 budget managers could do as well. London's 2012 velodrome is over budget - no medals for predicting that - but it will, they tell us, do lots more than they originally planned. BMX, off-road biking, putting a Man on the Moon, using only two wheels... Oh, the list is endless and could have been crafted by Lewis Carol. One theory is that they had forgotten that BMX and off-road biking were Olympic sports. Moon shots are still under consideration I am told, but my 10 year old is hoping for a late entry for Dirt Biking - no, I am not sure what it is either.

I do know, thank God, that he is not disabled and so is not entitled to any help from the council getting to and from school. We are happy with that. Think, then, of the families in Sutton who do have disabled children - mentally and physically - who are entitled to help. They have got used to a taxi picking up little Jack or lovely Jill but now find, in the latest round of cuts, they have to get a special bus, instead. Big deal, some of you may be thinking. Actually it is, as Piers will explain as he goes "on their side" in the latest of our "On Your Side" series.

We'll ask you, then, to tell us what you think about keeping our council taxes as low as possible but also if you think there are any no-go areas. Tough call but we'd love to know your thoughts.

Faye is a touch bohemian today - very dark, grey jeans, (reminding me of Manfred Mann), a black sweater and an amazing leather belt. I asked her how many innocent creatures had given up their God-given right to exist, just so her trousers and sweater might stay in place. She was touched, I think, and said, rather coolly, "none".

Sir Donald Sinden's daughter-in-law was asked the same question, as she left the Savoy, in a three-quarter length fur coat. "Just one", she said, "my late mother-in-law, who left it to me".

Michael Peacock would never be seen in a fur-coat. In fact he is often to be seen in nothing at all. On Hampstead Heath. He is a naturist who opposes plans to minimise the area where fellow naturists can do their thing, not just 'commando' but absolutely, totally starkers. It has become a point of contention up on the Heath, I am told. I think they might have cast around, though, for a less ironically named campaign leader - but who am I to intervene?

One of my best friend's married name is Raincock and her husband never goes out when it is overcast, let alone in a shower - ribaldry he can do without and I know what he means. Glen has been told to keep his clothes on as he reports on Mr. Peacock's protest.

Lucy is scheduled to meet James Nesbitt at the preview of the National Movie Awards. As with my reaction to not being cast in the role of Ms Knightley's interviewer, so is the reaction of many of the women in the newsroom to Ms Cotter's luck with Jimmy - a great actor but a hot bit of totty too, they tell me.

Finally, G8 is a meeting of the most powerful economic nations on the face of the earth - which, the way things are going, could soon include Kazakhstan and Hong Kong ahead of the US and the UK. Russia is no longer invited since that nasty mess in Georgia, so G7 is back to the old, pre-1989 and the collapse of Communism, line-up of US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan.

(The last three were against the first three in the last WW with the one in the middle playing it's traditional, historic role of being the one on the middle - odd that.)

Anyway, G6 and G5 are a mystery but G4 were a rather fine ensemble of male singing talent who sold millions of albums (they'll be in G7 at this rate) and then broke up to go their own, unharmonious ways. Jonathan Ansell, the cute blonde one (said one of the team, no names, no Salma), is coming in to talk to us about the Mikado at Richmond Theatre. Questions? "I have a little list" and will play the role of the "Lord High Executioner" if he doesn't answer them.

Weather with Chrissie , so Mr Raincock and others can plan their wardrobes.

Papers because we do.

And then your thoughts on the council tax, because we mean it.

See you at 6.

Alastair and Salma

Friday September 5th

Good afternoon.

What do Clint Eastwood and Boris Johnson have in common? Clint didn't go to Eton nor is he, to the best of my knowledge, a classicist. Bozza, on the other hand, eschews charootes and wouldn't recognise an appaloosa if is kicked him in the seat of the pants.

No, it is the world of politics that binds these unlikely blood-brothers - Clint was Mayor of Carmel, in California whilst Bozza is, and will remain for at least the next 3 years and 8 months, the Mayor of our great city.

Bozza is an ex-editor of The Spectator and Clint isn't.

Clint made "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" and Bozza didn't.

Nevertheless, this evening, we invite you to Spectate upon the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

The Good is exemplified by genius Irish comic Patrick Keilty and friends being hilarious in advance of their Soccer Aid match this weekend which will enhance the lives of thousands of children. Nick talks to him and both are heckled by Alan Shearer. Gordon Ramsay is doing the teas and a host of short-wearing wizards, who actually know what they are doing, will be there too. Good for them and good for the kids.

The Bad is - according to what a court heard today - actually an understatement - a man from Rotherhithe, accused of causing fatal mayhem but a stones throw from where Jack the Ripper did his evil a little over a century ago. Ronke tells you as much as she can, given the early hour and the potential presence of children.

And the Ugly is the weather. It is Friday which is followed by the weekend and what can we expect? Grounds for wrapping up warm in a blanket, brewing a pot of tea and watching black and white movies all weekend. Robin will attempt to explain away this September travesty with his customary, if not a little surreal, wit.

Somewhere between Bad and Ugly is the accidental, tragic shooting of another small child by air-gun - and, as with the recent case in Birmingham ,it was a family weapon and the shot was fired by a family member. Nick is at the scene and has been talking to friends and neighbours - some of whom are clearly not both...

Good, Bad AND Ugly was the stunt to give thousands of pounds worth of petrol away as a video promotion. Good because people got free petrol. Bad because it caused chaos on the streets and Ugly because those who were turned away got very pouty and petulant. Phil calms nerves and, honest, didn't take even a litre of the Middle East's finest before filing his report.

Defying catagorisation is my conversation with a middle weight boxer who went to Beijing and came back with Gold and the admiration of us all. James De Gale is big, funny and very thoughtful. I am sure you will enjoy him.

Another Olympian, Chris Hoy, meets Buster, the 102 year old London man who some don't think is 102. Hoy won a lot of medals and Buster says he'll do London to Brighton on a bike. You'd have thought they had both proved quite enough already but you can't help admiring them, can you?

James, we admire, for his grasp of cinematography and this week we ask him for his views on two films the premier's of which we covered live for you. So now the glitter dust has settled on the red carpet, what do we really think of Rocknrolla (Guy Ritchie) and Duchess - Kiera Knightley? I pause to regain my breath and composure.

 

Earlier, Salma gave me a monster slice of chocolate cake which I thought was really kind until, just as I sunk my teeth into a colossal quantity of calories, our brilliant director called "Who is doing What Not To Miss ?". If I did say 'me' it must have sounded like a muffled plea of submission or a suggestion that Salma might be better placed to do it. Anyway, as I sit here licking my lips and fingers, she is recording her beginners guide to what you might like to do this weekend . She is getting as devious as devious gets. But the cake was good.

So, after a quick trip to the basement ablutions to wash my hands I'll be poised and ready to sit next to Ms "Got YOU Again" and offer you London's finest account of that which has passed today and that which beckons over the next 48 hours. In full colour.

See you then, at 6.

Alastair and Salma

Thursday 4th September

Good afternoon.

There is a temperature, known as Absolute Zero, at which particles stop moving. It is known to scientists as Zero Degrees Kelvin and was discovered by an Irish physicist.

In terms you will understand if, like me, you are not an Irish physicist, it is -273.15

°C. Pretty nippy.

The average January temperature in Siberia is -20

°C but, at 30-40,000 feet, if gets a lot nippier, though still well short of Absolute Zero.

However, given aviation fuel freezes at a temperature between -47

°C. to -40 °C, a BA Boeing 777 flying at 30-40,000 needs to be sure it's fuel system is nice and cosy and , if not toasty, certainly warmer than -40°C.

In January this year on just such a plane returning from Beijing, it wasn't. That, according to the expert investigators, is why we witnessed a crash landing at Heathrow and one of the most spectacular bits of flying since the Wright Brothers did their thing or Guy Gibson and his gang did it large to the Rhur Valley Dams. Ben will explain all.

Boris and his boys propose to "do it large" to the millions who use London Transport, above and below this great city of ours. "Large" in the sense that inflation, officially measured, is running at around 4% but the City Hall Clippies are going for fare rises of well above that, averaging 6%. Harris cries "Ding ding" in protest and we ask Boris to explain. We already know he'll blame Ken (remember Ken? Long time Mayor... yes, thought you would) and that Ken will blame Boris. You can shift the occupants of the office around but they'll still scrap. We offer you a ringside seat.

Sir Ian Blair got all Mark Twain today when he borrowed the celebrated line used by the celebrated American author when his obituary wrongly appeared in the New York Journal.: "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated". For Blair it was a reference to his professional life following a report in The Times saying it was over. Everyone and his body-guard are denying it so well worth a sniff around: Ronke puts her pomander aside and looks deep into the collective souls of London's law enforcement agencies and it's political classes. Not a pretty sight, I'm sure.

Nor is an army of drunken British youths, or drunken youths of any nationality, rampaging through a popular holiday resort. Crete is just such a thing (popular holiday resort, not drunken youth) and Lewis , never known to down anything stronger than a sensible measure of sanatogen, is on the case in part two of his powerful series from that Grecian idyll.

Finally, Kool and The Gang are in to celebrate their appearance at O2 tomorrow night. I can remember the song but not the line up, and "gang" is a little imprecise in terms of numbers. We only have two benches in the studio. They can accommodate three, average size bottoms. I do not know enough about Kool nor his followers to resolve this in my mind: join me to watch the solution and enjoy the music.

I suppose , like a choir, they could stand?

Katie and I will share the front-pages of London's papers with you, Chrissie will impart her forecast from the bench, unless Mr. K or a disciple has broken it by that stage; and then we will all go our merry ways... bar those who are traveling by Boeing 777 who may have cause to pause, whilst those using the bus or tube have but four months to celebrate what passes for fair fares.

Life is hard. Hope Kool does his stuff in a lasting way. I sure he will. Or is it a her? What a journey of discovery I am on tonight.

See you at 6

Alastair and Katie

 

 

 

London Tonight Tonight Wednesday 3rd September

Good afternoon.

I bow to no man in my admiration of Lewis Vaughan Jones: handsome, articulate and a gifted reporter. However, to suggest that he is the reincarnation of the man many hold to be the Messiah, may be pushing it a tad. But that is what The Big Boss has just suggested to our meeting. Mad? Possibly but if I were to suggest that it would be a Bad Career Move for me. For the Big Boss to have said what he said about Lewis is clearly a Very Good Career Boost.

Today Lewis is loitering in a Guards Polo Club shirt, from his marvellous piece on Polo, some little time ago; but even that sartorial travesty is forgiven. He has just returned from Crete and from talking to a man who was beaten into a coma by five thugs some three months ago. The man has muttered some of his first words in the presence of LVJ who also talks to his mum. His mum is ecstatic. The lad is getting quite a bit happier though there is a long way to go. See if you agree with TBB's assessment of LVJ's miraculous powers, at 6.

Joan Baez had a miraculous impact upon me in my teens, turning me from a hard-working, slightly conservative choir boy at a Benedictine boarding school, into a long-haired, left wing rabble rouser at University.

Quite how the words to "Silver Dagger" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" did it, I can't recall but I do remember being seriously impressed with her refusal to pay that element of her US taxes that she judged to be an enforced contribution to the costs of the Vietnam war which she, like many, opposed. Tonight, Liz will introduce you to Tom and Rita Glenister, the pensioners from Barnet, who are yet to utter even a phrase from "Blowin' In The Wind" or "The Times They Are A'Changing" but who are following Joan Baez and risking the liberties many before them fought for, in protest at their Council Tax for the Olympics. Heroes or mad as a pair of Hatters? You be the judges.

 

If they hold their ground and pay the ultimate price, then the road they live in will spring to life on Boris's All Singing, All Dancing interactive Crime Map. He threatened it during the Mayoral election campaign and, blow me down, he's done it. Politicians delivering on promises? It is becoming a bit of a habit. Anyway, Harris sees the state Bozza was in, the morning after the night before at the GQ awards where BJ picked up a tasty gong. Believe me, it will make sense in Harris's hands.

I was sitting there reading the Lunchtime edition of London Today to you when Ken "football crazy so long as it's West Ham" Hayes cried into my ear "Curbishley's resigned!". He 'cried' both in terms of volume and emotion, I hasten to add. He was cross when I asked to check if it was CurbRishley or just Curbishley... he really felt I should have known and he was, as always, right. Anyway Alan is off but is it in a north-easterly direction, or has he been frozen out by the Icelandic raiders???

Ken is cross with the fans, the board and anyone who crosses his path this afternoon. He will remain emotional but Marcus, a life-long Gooner, will be his normal, objective self and explain all.

 

 

I adore Lucy Cotter in a way significantly different to the admiration and affection I feel for LVJ. But it has all gone, in a flash of stacked hair and tuille: Keira Knightley, a Goddess, graces the red carpet tonight at the premiere of "DUCHESS" and grants London Tonight another interview.

It should have been me.

It could have been me.

Yesterday, I failed to secure the "lip and tongue" artwork from the Rolling Stones favourite designer - today, a second audience with the fragrant, elegant, perfect and pure Ms Knightley. I fear it is a bottle of whisky, a warm bath and a revolver for me.

One of the last memories I will take with me to The Other Side is that of Ben Scotchbrook on the top of a Double Decker Bus with Sir Cliff Richard on tonight's show. What can it mean? Goodbye, cruel world, I'm leaving you...

 

But not before I record the fact that the orchestra and the Judges in the BBC's otherwise excellent MAESTRO programme are heartless, brainless fools - devoid of judgment and purpose, led by an indulgent, moronic has-been ex-lawyer and ex-humourist... have I taken Katie's departure from that programme well? Have I hell!

She will grace our programme tonight and I am honoured to sit with her.

Goldie? Perkins? Asher? Pah. Musical minnows.

Alastair & Katie "Amadeus" Derham.

LONDON TONIGHT TONIGHT

Good Afternoon.

Soldiers wear uniforms, spend a lot of time away from home and often give each other nick-names - "Spike", "Tommy" and "Killer" are a selection from across the years.

Professional footballers wear uniforms (which they call "strips") , are away from home, on average every other weekend, and give each other nick-names such as "Oi, you", "Ronaldo" and "The Refrigerator" depending upon where they come from, how good they are and which code they play.

Could you define them as gang-members? In a way, yes: a platoon and a football team are "gangs" but not in the graffiti-daubing, gun-toting, fear-spreading, crime- infliciting way that we have come to fear. And yet, according to a new Government pamphlet, published today, these are among the Aristotelian essences of gang-membership. I fear for the fuzz if they use this as a hand-book for tracking down and dealing with this ghastly challenge to civil order - there will be appalling scenes at Aldershot, Chelsea Barracks, outside Buckingham Palace and at soccer stadiums across the capital - apart from the Den, where they already do quite well, thank-you.

We discuss this latest initiative and Glen, who wore a uniform as a child, was known by a nick-name "Cub" in his "Six" and promised to do his best and to do his duty, to God and the Queen, will do his best for you to make sense of it.

Where's the sense in a housing market rescue package which offers to "scrap" stamp-duty on house purchases up to a ceiling of £175,000 when, in London, you wouldn't get a doll's house for that sort of money? Liz explores the elusive answer to that question which flows from the Government's much heralded, last-ditch, Brown-relaunch package to drag home-ownership off its knees. It might not take her long and that has nothing to do with the fact that she is a brilliant reporter.

As is Harris - but even he looked dumbfounded when he discovered that a towering example of London's 2012 legacy looks like being a shopping centre that will make Bluewater and Lakeside look like the corner shop in Corrie. Stratford City is the name, conspicuous consumption on a gargantuan scale is the game. Harris met Boris there so, everything to play for!

As there was at last night's London Restaurant Awards; and for one Cookery King it was a bit of a Chinese take-away - you get one award and, minutes later, you want another. Was he successful, who is he and where does he do his fricasse and saute thing? Damian dons the tall white hat and raises a glass or more to The Master.

The Mistress of American comedy is, undeniably in my view, Joan Rivers : rude, clever, well-informed and ... well really rude. She graces the West End with a new production. If you like her, you'll love it. If you don't, you'll still find her encounter with Lucy delicious. By the way, Madonna DID turn up last night but after Lucy had left Guy Ritchie's "red-carpet" moment. I think Guy was disappointed but that's between me, Lucy, Guy, Madonna and the lawyers....

Robin faces the lawyers for inflicting such appalling weather upon us, recently: we give him one chance of mitigation tonight or it's off to the Tower with him.

Faye, who has spilt tea over her formerly light-wool frock, soldiers on. I suggested she might dispense with it and fall back on the black tee-shirt and black-trousers. My cheek is still smarting.

See you at six and thank heaven for make-up.

Alastair and the faultless Katie.

London Tonight Tonight Monday 1st September

Good afternoon.

 

Shakespeare, for most our greatest ever playwright whatever fans of Ernie Wise tell you, spent his formative professional years on London's South Bank, and the magnificently restored Globe Theatre stands in tribute to him and his folio of work. "Romeo and Juliet" provided the roots of "West Side Story", a musical tale of gang warfare in New York. "Hamlet" has not led to a west end musical but does boast a play-within-a-play, "The Mousetrap", whose namesake has graced the theatre opposite the Ivy restaurant for over half a decade. Our programme tonight takes a little from both these plays.

 

Shaquille Maitland-Smith, the 25th young Londoner to be murdered this year may, just may, have been a victim of gang-warfare. For "Jets" and "Sharks" (or Montagues and Capulets for the scholars among you) think E8 'London Fields' and E9 - terrorising parts of the East End. It is thought Shaquille was caught up in this internecine strife though it is, as yet, unclear if he was actually a gang member. However, he is dead. Marcus examines the death, the turf - described by Mare Street, and the role gangs may have played in another tragic loss of life.

We also explore Operation Blunt 2 - the successor to Operation Blunt 1 - which was supposed to mop up knife crime in the capital. I fear a few more Blunts will be required, but we will see.

 

From Guy Ritchie, we get the play within a play in the sense that we are leading on a real life gangster theme, while Guy's latest offering, the premiere of which we're at tonight, is about gangsters. He either has a fixation or an expertise: I am not sure which, but I did enjoy the first one. Can't quite remember the others: perhaps "Rocknrolla" will be different. Lucy hopes to talk to Guy but we think Mrs Ritchie is still strutting her stuff somewhere else in Europe. Who knows? Kebala permitting, she may waft in...

 

Mike Ashley is a bit like Falstaff in Henry IV and V - also penned by young Will S - a big, burley, boozy beast of a man, partial to copious libations who made millions from sportswear shops as we clad our little darlings in the ever changing "home, away and 'I fancy that in blue'" strips of our favourite football clubs. In Shakespeare, booze was often a sweet wine known as sack, but for Big Mike it was beer. He says NON-alcoholic, others are less sure. Anyway, he downed a pint of it in one gulp at the Emirates where his beloved Newcastle U, went down to the Glorious Gunners. He actually owns NUFC and may, therefore, have been drowning his sorrows. I'd have thought that would take more than a pint. Anyway, he did it within view of the field of play and that is not on. Glen wipes the bar and calls "time" on the Geordie visitor.

 

Boris says it is "time" to review the western extension of the Congestion Zone. What will you say and will he listen? Five weeks to find out.

The bears of North America may have a lot to celebrate: first the Governor of Alaska, who loves shooting them, is the Republican candidate for Vice President of the USA and may win, thus having less time to reduce their numbers.

Why a meeting in London, tomorrow, could also be good news for them will be revealed on our show tonight. Good news for bears, bad news for migrating salmon and less-than alert hunters.

 

Finally, the story of the night: Clues: A home counties town has a bit in common with a city, south of the Mason-Dixon line, celebrated for jazz.

It is very, very dramatic and caused one woman, from the aforementioned home counties town to utter a very nasty anglo-saxon expletive - but she was right.

All, bar the expletive, will be revealed at 6 by Ben - possessor of a cleaner tongue than you will find in most quarters.

 

Romilly wanted that bit about the expletive being deleted in writing for you all, and The Big Boss agreed. Faye, frisky in jeans that cannot permit circulation and a stunning dark pink top, seemed to enjoy saying the word at our meeting. Romilly blanched, Robin said "what???" and I put it down to youthful exuberance...

She has now found a picture of me, years ago, when I had more hair.

As Shakespeare said in the "Seven Ages" speech: It comes to us all when we are "sans hair, sans teeth, sans everything..." Surely not YET !!!!

 

See you at 6.

 

Alastair and Romilly.

 

 

Friday 29th August

Good afternoon.

 

You can a lot about a person from their taste in refreshments. Never trust a woman who sips Gripe Water in the afternoon, nor a man who disregards the dose instructions on a bottle of Benelyn. They are troubled addicts pretending that "mother's little-helper" will quell their nerves and that a really clear throat is an excuse for gulping sweet linctus as if there were no tomorrow. There may not be a tomorrow at that rate.

I raise this cautionary note simply because, whilst the Big Boss and I are currently enjoying a cup of "builder's-tea", Salma has ordered "an Assam" from the charming man who brings us our afternoon drinks-trolley. Assam? If she smoked, I'll bet it would be Sobranie Black Russians or their oddly coloured Cocktail selection.

 

Talking of odd colouring, our favourite story of the day involves a pair of fine creatures whose ancestors hailed from eastern Canada and whose breed evolved into a fine example of hunting dogs. They are also lovely to have around the house, which I can personally attest to, and most of them are blondes. Mine was 'chocolate' and named, by the children Charlie Brown. My children are accurate if not a little predictable. Unlike the two "labbies" who grace our programme tonight with their unpredictable skill. Hints, I think, are appropriate: The Beach Boys, 'hanging-five', 'wipe-out' and woodies would all be familiar to them were they human. They are not. They are "labbies", which makes their achievement all the more amazing. You will be glued to your TVs as you see Branston and Pickle do their "thing"... Lucy cries "heel" and we all obey, willingly. 'Spect you will, too.

 

Blowing up and catching fire were not supposed to be a Bendy-bus "thing" but it is looking that way again. That niggling little problem was supposed to have been sorted which might explain why the powers that be were so keen that the construction workers on an incendiary bendy-bus, up Hackney way, were asked to put their cameras and video-phones away. The run-of-the-mill among them did but one brave lad didn't and we have the fruits of his David Bailey moment. Watch it before clambering aboard that Number 235 tomorrow...

 

Not that you could have done today if it were one of the 80 routes operated by "First", the bus company. There's a rail company of that name, too, but they don't operate buses, directly - only when their trains are cancelled and we all have to pile on a blooming bus to complete our journeys. Anyway, todays disruption and the threat of more to come all in the elegant hands of LVJ.

 

In the equally elegant hands of Richard Blackwood are the chances of The South seeing off The North in your metropolitan affections. I thought Les Dennis's case for the North,last night, was slightly weakened by his being a Scouser and by his praising Hampstead for being close to the MI and his escape route north. Richard, who insists on calling it "saafff" London, has no such problems - he is the man and you can hear his plea at 6.

 

Still being all geographical or cartographical, there's a great North West footy clash this weekend as Spurs take on Chelsea. Arsenal face the delights of Kevin Keegan, his hair, Michael Owen and all that is Newcastle United FC. Fascinating even if you are not interested, if you see what I mean.

 

You'll be left in no doubt as to what James means when he reviews our movies -"STEPBROTHERS" and "THE STRANGERS". Salma, now finished with her "Assam" and sending out for a moist, linen cloth to wipe her fingers, says "The Strangers" is 'reeeeaaaalllly' frightening: that is how she said it.

 

What I find really frightening, is that anyone would have put the money up to make Stepbrothers, a film I would avoid like a re-run of whatever the worst ever made film was before this one was finished in the cutting room. But, hey, that's me: James is better informed and more balanced. (Bet he hates it, too.)

 

I am fond of all three of London's papers but find "Lite" the hardest to get hold of. My man at Waterloo loves the fact I still buy the ES , though my accountant doesn't. Those two and the purple-ish one at 6. Robin, like the forecasting fiddler that he is, is on the roof. (It is a Topol joke. Oh, never mind.) 

 

Your weekend weather will round this all off but keep your weekend plans open because, once you've seen Branston and Pickle, I think you may be heading for the coast - unless your daddy has taken the T-Bird away...

 

See you at 6

 

Alastair "I never wanted to do What Not To Miss" Stewart and Salma "Hollow victory but nice tea" Siraj.

 

London Tonight Tonight Thursday 28th August

Good afternoon.

"You can't always get what you want. But if you try, sometimes, you get what you need" is a refrain from one of my favourite Rolling Stones tracks. But what if you try, and still don't get what you feel you not only want and need, but deserve? Admit you weren't up to it and press on? Claim all the world, and his friends, are against you? Or explore, legally, which of those two might be true? I am not rambling, I assure you: this is precisely the dilemma facing the most senior Asian Police Officer in the Met'.

 

Tarique Ghaffur had done very well and had even been asked to head up the 2012 Olympic security unit. Suddenly he claims, he was put aside. He claims Sir Ian Blair, and a "Golden Circle" of intimates, conspired against him and that the institutionalised racism, identified by Sir William MacPherson in the wake of the lack-lustre Stephen Lawrence inquiry, was alive and well and still causing harm and hurt to ethnic minority coppers. It is a bold move on Tarique's part and a defining moment for the Met: not some bitter and twisted young Asian or Afro-Caribbean lad, whingeing in the canteen, with or without cause. But a grown-up intelligent man with as much silver on his shoulders as a Brinks Matt deposit box, pointing a damning finger of accusation at the heart of the body charged with our impartial and honest protection. It is day one of a battle that will run and run. We have the details, some of the players and will ask why some of the others are still lying low.

 

 

Eighteen months ago, around Valentines Day, I stood in the bitter cold outside a block of flats in Clapham, reporting on the murder of Billy Cox. I said it was a worrying sign of a growth in a pointless and tragic loss of life among our young people. Little did I know how awfully it would grow. Less did I realise, though I ought to have, how indelible would be the bitterness felt by his parents - not an atom of emotion has evaporated from their souls in the intervening year and a half. Tonight they talk to us and tell of their continuing sense of loss and disbelief.

 

Two people off on their travels for rather different reasons: Ken has got a job with President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela - they have elections coming up and Ken is going to help out. (Hasn't Victor seen the outcome of the last Mayoral race? Only a question.)

 

And Gary McKinnon is off to the USA to answer charges over the most spectacular "hack" since my 15 year old ordered a rather fine electric guitar on my lap-top only to come up with the most spectacular explanation since Eve said she just thought Adam looked peckish and in need of one of his five fruit'n'veg.

Mr. McKinnon looks set to have rather a lot of time on his hands to peruse his fascination with UFOs, albeit it in a non-expanding universe.

 

A terrific story from what was once the realm of sci-fi: nano technology has fascinated me since I read my Eagle comics as a child and saw miniaturised submarines being sent into a man's bloodstream to repair his heart. Now, as you know, they can do it - except they don't need to worry about not being able to miniaturise the men anymore. It is all done by machines that make a pin-head look like the size of Richmond Park, or Hyde Park depending on whether you come from North or South of the River. We've the tale of the first beneficiary of this medical breakthrough about which Arthur C. Clarke might have said "Yeah? And then...?" Whilst we, and his family, say "Hurrah!".

 

We also have the tale of an urban fox who smiled at his hunter.

Three blonds from an Olympic boat are with us, all of whom are lovely , as is Faye - although she has just said this is an essay - what does she want? Microfilm and short-hand?

 

I conclude by warning you Les Dennis - a Scouser - tells us about London's North South divide, good casting, eh?

 

Papers, weather and whatever you think about Tarique Ghaffur. Do listen to the arguments first and then e-mail us.

If the arguments we've been having on the story are anything to go by, it should be fascinating.

 

See you at 6.

 

Alastair and Salma

 

London Tonight Tonight Wednesday 27th August

Good Afternoon,

At six o'clock tonight you'll get to see a very different programme to the one we started off with this morning, thanks to some Breaking News.

The jury in a very important case has come back with their verdicts so we can bring you the story. It involves a gun factory in a garden shed, weapons making their way onto London's streets AND proof that THOSE firearms were responsible for the deaths of at least 8 people in the Capital.

One of those killed was Michael Dosunmu, the teenager shot dead in his bed in a case of mistaken identity. Lewis Vaughan Jones has the reaction of Michael's family today. As I said - a very important case.

 

Then the story of a house fire in Woking that is unravelling into something more - you'll have to watch Liz Wickham's report for the details on that.

Now as a female journalist I proudly consider myself to be one of the nosiest busy bodies on the planet, something my husband will whole-heartedly agree with. So imagine my envy when I heard of Ruth Ive, who's job it was to listen in to wartime phone calls between Churchill and FDR. Not only that - but it was up to her to cut them off if they said anything that German eavesdroppers might have picked up on. Simply fascinating, as Ruth says she was an ordinary girl doing an extraordinary job. Well we think she's pretty remarkable - and you can judge for yourselves, as at the age of 93 she shares some of her incredible stories with Lucy Cotter.

Plus - former Blue band member Lee Ryan and ex-Eastender Lucy Benjamin join us for a chat in the studio about their West End debut together in a brand new play The Pretender Agenda.

It's a packed show - we hope to share it with you at 6.

Salma and Alastair

London Tonight Tonight

Good afternoon.

It is Tuesday but the first working day of this Bank Holiday seasoned week - hope you had a good three day break. If you didn't , sue.

Martyn Lewis was a terrific ITN newsreader who also made a name for himself writing books about pets and pleading the cause of "good news" . When asked by the Prince of Wales why we only reported on aircraft that crash and not that fact that hundreds of 747s successfully fly across the Atlantic every-day, a colleague said "Because that's what they're supposed to do, sir. Not crash." News is a bit of a devil to define, good or bad.

Let us try:

BAD NEWS - thousands of people turned up for the Notting Hill Carnival to have a great time. Towards the end it all when unpleasantly pear-shaped with tazers and baseball-bats. Hundreds of arrests.

GOOD NEWS - the daughter of Martyn Lewis (see above) caught it all going off on her video-phone and we have secured the rights to share it with you.

GOOD NEWS - a little baby, born spectacularly premature a couple of years ago, with more ailments than the index to Gray's Anatomy, has survived and we are talking to him and his mum.

BAD NEWS - we only have 30 minutes of programme tonight otherwise we could let this uplifting tale of parental love and medical genius run and run.

GOOD NEWS - Christine O is coming home, the last 400 metres are always the hardest. Boris hasn't lost the Olympic banner yet. Both are back in London.

BAD NEWS - there are only 12 seats in First Class on a BA Boeing 747 - who sat where and who lost out?

George VI , dad to our current Queen, smoked like a chimney. Shortly after her coronation which was, of course, preceded by his death, Elizabeth II went to see the Royal Horse Artillery barracks in St. John's Wood. She was so wowed by the troopers she christened them, there and then, KING'S Troop, Royal Horse Artillery in memory of dad. Now five current troopers have been sacked for failing drug tests. No one has ever suggested George VI ever consummed anything other than Virginia's finest so, if the troopers defence is that their consumption was in memory of a Great Old Man's habits, the defence will go up in a cloud of .... enough, already - save to say Virginia was named after Elizabeth I , The Virgin Queen. I should get a GCSE for this lot....

We've a geography lesson - The Tour of Britain is not the Tour de France, it is the Tour of Britain. London is in Britain so why are we getting excited about the fact that part of this year's Tour is coming through the capitol? I think it is because there will be Olympians involved and men in very dubious pink lycra outfits.

And we ask, which is best? North of the river or south? Glen straddles the question like the collosus he wakes up, dreaming he is.

Oh, there's also something about "STEP BROTHERS", a movie I saw promoted at the weekend and about which I made one of those "like a plague" mental notes but I am told I am wrong as it features a fresh creation from " that stable of idiotic characters, that " is a "chuckle-ette" but with too much "wee" and "pee" humour in it... I rest my case but you decide.

I am still with the little boy who survived against the odds: drop nearly everything else and let's have more of him.

This, dear friends, is why I am a presenter and not an Editor. Notice the sychophantic use of the capital...

Siraj has just asked if I have mentioned her, yet.

There.

Done.

We will both be here at 6 unless she beats me to a pulp for not mentioning her before now. She is currently wittering on about how great she is. She is, but I won't be swayed.

Alastair and Salma "beautiful, elegant, popular..." [she is STILL talking] ... Siraj.

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Friday 22nd August

Dear One and All...

 

Salma wanted me to point out - before we talk about anything else - that she's bought a box of chocolates for everyone to tuck into this afternoon. Evidence, she reckons, that she is a team player.*

 

Okay - who's the odd one out here - Boris, James and Tim. I'll give you the answer a little later.

 

Now, let's have a look at what we have in the programme.

 

Well it's Friday, so there's plenty of entertainment - obviously.

 

'Get Smart' was a hugely popular TV series way back in the sixties which has now been turned into a huge Hollywood movie. Should they have bothered? And should Shane Meadows (the director who won huge acclaim for his partly autobiographical movie 'This is England') have bothered making 'Somers Town'? James King will be here to deal with those posers. Just in case you wanted to head off to your local picture-house, that is.

 

If you've got a bit more 'get and go' (and I say this as someone whose 'get and go' got up and went years ago) there's always the prospect of the Reading Festival. Lots of 'now' music acts. Lots of fresh air. Lots of mud, by all accounts. Lucy will bring you a great big slice of all that.

 

On the lighter side of the news front, Piers Hopkirk has been hailing a cab in Little Venice today. A watery one. A kayak, in fact. As of today, you too can now hire a cab-boat. Which will be fabulous, unless you want to get to Oxford Circus, or Harrods, or Gatwick or... well, you get the point.

 

Actually, while we're on the subject of Gatwick... I don't know about you but if I ever find myself flying off somewhere, I want to spend as little time as possible at the airport, any airport. We'll report on a chap who's been sent to prison today... after l-i-v-i-n-g there. I mean, really.

 

Hang on - stop press - as I write this, one of our reporters has just phoned in to tell us there's a bus on fire by the Old Bailey. We'll try and get you some pictures of that for the programme.

 

Our lead story tonight is the latest on the death of young Ahmed Benyermak, the 16 year old who fell from a block of flats in Hackney. We'll hear from the police on their investigation into what really happened and why.

 

Okay, back to our little quiz at the top.

 

Boris is the odd one out (one imagines that's not the first time) as James (De Gale) and Tim (Brabants) both won medals in Beijing today. A certain Mr Johnson has won nothing, but he will be walking away with the whole Olympic Games on Sunday, so Simon Harris has been getting his thoughts on that.

 

Incidentally, Tim Brabants won his medal - a gold one - in a kayak today. It'd be good if you hailed him in Little Venice, wouldn't it? You'd have to tip him though.

 

Cripes, as Boris would say, what a packed programme,

 

We'll see you at SIX.

 

Ben & Salma

 

 

*I bought chocolates last Friday. A bigger box.

 

London Tonight Tonight Thursday 21st August

Hello,

 

16 year old Ahmed Benyermak will never collect the GCSE results that he's spent 2 years working towards. Last night he became yet another London teenager to die needlessly on our streets. Ahmed was not shot or stabbed but rather fell seven storeys. It's thought he tried to escape from a gang by scaling the outside of a building.

The thought of a boy, so desperate that he would choose to climb out of a 13th floor window, has hit us all quite deeply and Phil Bayles' report will undoubtedly make you stop and think, once again about the actions of our youngsters.

 

Another teenager who never even got the chance to sit his GCSE exams was Jimmy Mizen. The talented young man who no-one had a bad word to say about. He was killed in a bakers near his home - today his amazing family held a party for Jimmy's school friends to celebrate THEIR exam success - Marcus Powell was invited and you can see his report at 6.

 

From one brave family to another. The Parry's have fought long and hard to provide for their little boy who lost his legs to meningitis as a baby. You may remember his amazing story: despite struggling with the NHS his parents raised enough cash to take him to the States for a new set of prosthetic legs. They got back to London this morning - to find they'd been burgled. Yes - all those cash donations sent to them have gone. Ronke has the details.

 

Now we can't go without mentioning yet more team GB success ... as I write, a silver in triple jump and a gold in sailing ... and Alastair is very carefully monitoring the showjumping - sorry - INDIVIDUAL show jumping .... I've been corrected. I'm just glad I know which end the tail is at. And that is the beauty of the Olympics, no not a horse's bottom, but the fact that this wonderful eclectic mix of sports gets such a high profile and generates so much enthusiasm. Beijing has exceeded all our expectations .. just imagine what we can achieve on our home turf.

So how can we keep the momentum going for the next four years? Well we ask the woman in charge of that, Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell. She'll actually be fast asleep in Beijing by the time we are on air - but through the wonders of television we will have spoken to her beforehand.

 

Ok - time to drag Al away from the jumping horses.

 

See you at 6.

 

Salma and Al

 

London Tonight Tonight Wednesday 20th August

And a Good Afternoon to you...

 

Quick one this afternoon as, well, the programme has proved to be a bit of a struggle today. Don't get me wrong - what we've ended up with is a cracker, but it's just been rather hard work getting there.

 

So - first up - did you know that a Spanish company owns Heathrow airport? And Gatwick Airport. And Stansted, come to that. Well, the Competition Commission clearly has no problem with the Spanish bit, but it's not happy with the same company owning all three. So BAA have been told they've got to sell two of the three. Which ones do you think will soon have a 'For Sale' sign on the departure board? Unlikely to be Heathrow really, isn't it? Anyway, we'll look at what different owners at Gatwick and Heathrow might mean for passengers. Cheaper flights? A more enjoyable airport experience?

 

One of the knock-on effects of the Great Airport Sale may be the expansion of Heathrow. And that hasn't made Alfred Thurling happy. It could break his heart, actually. Hillingdon Council is fighting government plans for a dual carriageway to be built through the cemetery where Alfred's dad is buried. And his Mum. And his wife. And where he has reserved a plot to join them when the fateful day comes. We'll ask for your views on that story later.

 

I've just been distracted by the 200m Final in Beijing - Usain Bolt (the Jamaican guy who sauntered to a world record in the 100m Final) has just chalked up another fastest-ever time. Two gold medals. Not bad, is it? Not quite Chris Hoy, obviously. But, pretty good, to be fair. Anyway, we'll be talking to a Londoner who picked up her gold medal in the 400m yesterday. And then we'll hear from another Brit who won a couple of medals some time back. Ladies and Gentleman, we give you Christine and Coe.

 

Oh, and we'll also take a look at Visit London's first salvo in their campaign to promote 'London - the Olympic City' that will be launched this weekend.

 

See you at SIX -

 

Ben & Katie

 

London Tonight Tonight Tuesday 19th August

Good afternoon.

I am not alone in not being sure where I am.

I got back from Beijing on Saturday so, to a degree, it is still just coming up to 11 PM on my body-clock but I will survive. Christine Ohuruogu, on the other hand, has no excuse: having stormed to Golden victory in the women's 400 meters she told the interviewer "I don't know where I am. I don't know!" Well, Christine: it is the capital of China and you are about to find your way to the Gold medal podium - turn right at the starting blocks and it is the highest box, the one in the middle. Well done you darling! We were there and Harris will wipe a tear to share the whole emotional experience. PS watch out for the superstar who gives Christine her flowers.....

 

And the gorgeous Russian girl who didn't win but was an agreeable distraction.

Also watch out for Germaine Mason who looks tall enough to step over the high-jump pole let alone Fosbury Flop over it. He has glittering prizes too.

Faye rather liked him, as well as our lovely rowers. She is wearing an external corset today, in striking black, so the athletes may reciprocate her interest, for all I know. There again, the jeans may put them off: who knows?

Away from Beijing, Tim "the hair" Parker is no longer Deputy Mayor and no longer in charge of TfL. Was he pushed or did he jump on the Circle Line and miss a few important meetings? Does Boris believe the entire world is his Oyster? We've been trying to find out and will share our findings.

That is legal, indeed it is our duty.

Sharing computer files, if they contain lots of 0's and 1's that, in a binary sort of way, gel together to make a clever game, isn't. A woman discovered that to her cost - a cool £16k in fact. Log on at 6 for the cautionary tale, as Hilaire Beloc might have said.

You weren't able to buy Beloc books in Hugh Grant's famous Notting Hill bookshop because, as you may recall, it only sold travel books. (Perhaps Christine Ohuruogu should go and get a guide To Where You Are...?). What you can buy, however, is the flat upstairs. Proximity to history and to where Julia Roberts wept, must be worth a bit in a declining property market.

Robin finds art in a boulder if not under one. Yes, I am confused too but, in his hands, one just knows it will be magic. He'll have a weather forecast, too.

London's papers, which should show you where Christine is even if she is still disorientated, will close our programme. You can certainly find us where we always are, at 6. Hope you look us up.

Alastair and Romilly.

London Tonight Tonight Monday 18th August

Good Afternoon....

So, who's still got their voice then? Who hasn't shouted themselves hoarse with hearty renditions of 'Rule Britannica'... dare I say 'Pool Britannica'...

Fabulous, wasn't it? Isn't it? A whole new crowd of sporting heroes for us - and future generations - to celebrate and look up to.

I feel this would be a good time to share my new incentive scheme I think might spur athletes on to even greater success. Competitors who win a gold medal should be flown home in luxurious, 'nothing's too much trouble', first class. Silver medallists can enjoy the not inconsiderable delights of travelling in business. Anyone who wins bronze gets to travel home in economy - they can fight it out for the exit row. But, a competitor who doesn't have a medal in their hand luggage when they arrive at Beijing Airport, should be told: "On yer bike - London's that way".

 

Obviously, this may not be much of an incentive in 20-12.

The question though - will this year's success inspire even greater achievements? Is that warm feeling of pride lots of that winning athletes (and the home crowds) are feeling - really worth all the extra money that's being ploughed into these sports? That's where we start tonight's programme.

We've got more sporting heroes in the shape of David Beckham and Rio Ferdinand who've been speaking out about the horror of knife crime.

Then we'll have the story of a woman whose house has been blighted by plans to make the M25 bigger.

And we'll be taking a sneaky peak around the new Trocadero. It's open to the public later this week. And then anyone can go to the 'Ripley's Believe it or Not' exhibition - as long as they're prepared to pay £18 for an adult and £14 for a child.... Pause... Intake of breath.. Calmly now... THAT sounds rather expensive, doesn't it? You're not the only one to think so - and we'll be talking about it with someone who's been comparing London with other leading 'international cities' in the programme.

Sorry to say that Robin hasn't been judging any pigs tonight. But we will be slapping him across the face with a big wet fish in light of a truly miserable August. Summer? What summer?

See you at SIX,

Ben & Romilly

Friday 15th August

Hello You.

So - I don't know if you've heard but Team GB has notched up another GOLD medal today - thanks to Jamie Staff, Chris Hoy, and Jason Kenny cycling very, VERY fast round a track in Beijing.

Yay. Double yay. And hats off to them.

Don't know about you but - at any time other than the Olympic fortnight I find a lot of the sports about as exciting as a dead mouse. But - when 'the Games' are on - once the words 'Great' and 'Britain' come up on the scream, I'm there - shouting at the screen like a lunatic. I'm hoping not to lose my voice over the weekend.

Now, matters closer to home, and we start the programme with a story that may well get one or two people shouting at the screen... in disbelief. And then when those people finish shouting, others may well start shouting in opposition. So, here's the thing - was it a good idea for armed police to pop along to a fair in Limehouse... with their guns (we're not talking pea-shooters)... and then let children handle them, you know, really get to grips with them. The Met would argue - it's to take glamour and mystique out of the weapons. It has to be said that in the pictures we'll show you tonight some of the kids look like they're having a blast...

Onto some people who won't be having a blast this afternoon - stuck in a traffic jam on the M25. Imagine if they're desperately trying to catch a plane to jet off for their holidays. They could play, 'I-Spy' I suppose - you know, to pass the time.

"I spy with my little eye, something beginning with... 'FFJC"

"What's that Mummy?"

"It's the 'Father for Justice Campaigner' who's climbed up on to gantry over the motorway... causing the traffic jam we're sitting in."

Actually, we've two protest stories for you tonight. One from Heathrow. The other from Beijing.... a chap from St Albans managed to climb onto the new HQ of the Chinese state broadcaster to hang his 'Free Tibet' banner. He won't be seeing any more of the sports up close and personal. He's been deported.

What else? What else? Ah yes, the story - the truly extraordinary story actually - of Gill Hicks. She nearly died on the 7th of July 2005 - caught up in the explosion on the tube train between Kings Cross and Russell Square. I say she nearly died - in fact, her heart stopped beating twice... and she had to have both of her legs amputated. Well, Gill is a determined lady and she walked into London today - having started in Leeds - on her new legs. Her aim is to raise awareness of what could and should unite communities. She is also an inspiring lady.

On top of all that, we'll take a look at the big names to look out for in the Premier League (which, can you believe, kicks off tomorrow)... and there are a couple of movies that'll be hitting a big screen near you this weekend.

Seriously, why would you miss it?

Ben & Salma