Browse content similar to 02/02/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
Tonight at ten: Anger and recrimination in Egypt in | :00:04. | :00:10. | |
the wake of the latest violence. Demonstrators are on the streets | :00:10. | :00:17. | |
after the deaths of more than 70 football fans in clashes last night. | :00:17. | :00:20. | |
The victims' families say there was a deliberate failure to provide | :00:20. | :00:29. | |
adequate security and they blame the authorities. They stole money | :00:29. | :00:33. | |
from the people for 30 years, and now they are spending the money to | :00:33. | :00:38. | |
make gangsters and corruption in Egypt because they do not want the | :00:38. | :00:42. | |
revolution to succeed. We'll have the latest from Cairo on | :00:42. | :00:43. | |
the continuing unrest. Also tonight: | :00:43. | :00:46. | |
As Prince William arrives in the Falklands for a tour of duty | :00:46. | :00:52. | |
tensions rise in Argentina. Crowds attack British targets as the 30th | :00:52. | :00:57. | |
anniversary of the Falklands conflict approaches. | :00:57. | :01:00. | |
Cabinet minister Chris Huhne will find out tomorrow if he's to be | :01:00. | :01:03. | |
charged over claims that his wife accepted speeding points on his | :01:03. | :01:08. | |
behalf. The big freeze grips much of Europe. | :01:08. | :01:13. | |
Many are trapped in remote villages. And what brain studies tell us | :01:13. | :01:23. | |
:01:23. | :01:27. | ||
And coming up in Sportsday on the BBC News Channel, the FA chairman | :01:27. | :01:29. | |
asks members whether John Terry should stay as England captain | :01:29. | :01:39. | |
:01:39. | :01:48. | ||
while awaiting trial on racism Good evening. | :01:48. | :01:51. | |
Thousands of Egyptians have been protesting in Cairo following the | :01:51. | :01:55. | |
worst football violence in the country's history. 74 people died | :01:55. | :01:58. | |
in clashes last night prompting angry recriminations on the streets | :01:58. | :02:02. | |
and in parliament. It's underlined the continuing instability in Egypt | :02:02. | :02:08. | |
almost a year after President Mubarak was swept from power. This | :02:08. | :02:11. | |
is the scene live in Tahrir Square in Cairo tonight let's join our | :02:11. | :02:20. | |
correspondent Rupert Wingfield Hayes who's there. | :02:20. | :02:25. | |
Well, this evening, the centre of Cairo has once again been turned | :02:25. | :02:30. | |
into something of a battlefield. We have seen this evening thousands | :02:30. | :02:35. | |
and thousands of young people come into the centre of Cairo to gather | :02:35. | :02:41. | |
in front of the Interior Ministry. And they have tried repeatedly to | :02:41. | :02:44. | |
try to assault the Interior Ministry. They have been driven | :02:44. | :02:48. | |
back time and again by barrages of tear-gas and rubber bullets. There | :02:48. | :02:52. | |
have been hundreds of injuries tonight. We are not sure exactly | :02:52. | :02:57. | |
how many. The authorities are saying 500 or 600 people have been | :02:57. | :03:01. | |
injured. There has been a constant stream of ambulances taking the | :03:01. | :03:07. | |
injured away. The fury in a Cairo tonight has been caused by the | :03:07. | :03:10. | |
death of 74 people last night in Port Said in that football violence. | :03:10. | :03:15. | |
There is anger, there is consternation, but more than that, | :03:15. | :03:19. | |
there is deep, deep suspicion here from the protesters about who is | :03:19. | :03:23. | |
really behind the violence that caused those deaths last night in | :03:23. | :03:28. | |
Port Said. On the streets of Cairo this | :03:28. | :03:34. | |
afternoon, they already have their own theories. These football fans | :03:34. | :03:38. | |
are convinced the attack was planned and organised by Egypt's | :03:38. | :03:48. | |
:03:48. | :03:49. | ||
security forces. It is a crime down from the old regime. -- done by the | :03:49. | :03:53. | |
old regime. They stole money from people for 30 years and now they | :03:53. | :03:55. | |
are spending the money to make gangsters and corruption in Egypt | :03:55. | :04:00. | |
because they do not want the revolution to succeed. There is so | :04:00. | :04:09. | |
far no evidence to support that claim. These were the extraordinary | :04:09. | :04:13. | |
scenes at Cairo railway station early this morning, as the train | :04:13. | :04:21. | |
carrying survivors and the dead from Port Said pulled him. -- it | :04:21. | :04:27. | |
pulled in. Thousands crowd the platforms. Justice, or death, they | :04:27. | :04:33. | |
chant. This man immediately blames the head of Egypt's military junta | :04:33. | :04:37. | |
for the deaths. Tantawi opened the doors so that the thugs could | :04:37. | :04:43. | |
attack our friends, he said. As dawn breaks, another train pulls in. | :04:43. | :04:48. | |
Anxious parents wait desperately for news. My son has not answered | :04:48. | :04:53. | |
his phone since yesterday, this mother weeps, please, I beg you, | :04:53. | :04:59. | |
help me find my son. This is how it all happened on live television. As | :04:59. | :05:03. | |
the game ended, fans from the victorious Port Said team flooded | :05:03. | :05:08. | |
the pitch. The Cairo team fled for their lives. But many of the Cairo | :05:08. | :05:12. | |
fans were not so lucky. As they tried to flee, they were overrun, | :05:12. | :05:17. | |
beaten, bludgeoned and stabbed. Today, the blood smeared seats tell | :05:17. | :05:21. | |
of the brutality of the attacks. The piles of shoes show where | :05:21. | :05:27. | |
bodies were crushed against locked gates. The head of each of's | :05:27. | :05:31. | |
military junta met was shaken players from the Cairo team, | :05:31. | :05:36. | |
promising the culprits will be found unpunished. | :05:36. | :05:39. | |
TRANSLATION: With the result of his investigation, each one will take | :05:39. | :05:43. | |
his punishment and we will know why and who caused this tragedy. | :05:43. | :05:46. | |
with so many young people dead, nothing will stop some hear from | :05:46. | :05:50. | |
believing that the old men who have ruled Egypt for so long are somehow | :05:50. | :06:00. | |
:06:00. | :06:07. | ||
Rupert Wingfield-Hayes with the latest on the unrest in Cairo. | :06:07. | :06:12. | |
One of the other main stories: Prince William has arrived in the | :06:12. | :06:17. | |
Falkland Islands to start a six- week tour of duty as an RAF search- | :06:17. | :06:21. | |
and-rescue pilot. Britain says it is a routine deployment. Argentina | :06:21. | :06:26. | |
says it is provocative, as tensions grow between the countries. With | :06:26. | :06:29. | |
the 30th anniversary of the Falklands conflict approaching, | :06:29. | :06:34. | |
Allan Little sent this report from the capital, Stanley. | :06:34. | :06:38. | |
Argentina's rhetoric does not panic this place. The part-time soldiers | :06:38. | :06:41. | |
of the Falkland Islands Defence Force patrol their wet and | :06:41. | :06:49. | |
windswept island home. But no one fears another invasion. Officially, | :06:49. | :06:53. | |
he is here as plane Flight Lieutenant Wales, not a senior | :06:53. | :06:57. | |
British royal but a search and rescue helicopter pilot. That is | :06:57. | :07:01. | |
not how the world sees it. The Falkland Islanders are welcome him | :07:01. | :07:04. | |
as a restatement of the bond with Britain. Argentina said he was here | :07:04. | :07:09. | |
in what it called the uniform of the Conqueror. But the Falklands | :07:09. | :07:14. | |
are not spooked by the rhetoric. are in a very different place to 30 | :07:14. | :07:19. | |
years ago. The but my mission is to deter any military aggression to | :07:19. | :07:23. | |
these islands, or to the other South Atlantic overseas territories. | :07:23. | :07:28. | |
And it is only if that fails, should I need to defend this. And I | :07:28. | :07:33. | |
have got the capabilities to do that. The islanders, even so, are | :07:33. | :07:38. | |
glad of this, HMS dawn plus, one of the newest and most powerful | :07:38. | :07:42. | |
warships in the fleet, equipped to repel attack from the air. | :07:42. | :07:46. | |
Argentina says this has militarised the dispute, but Britain says it is | :07:46. | :07:50. | |
a routine deployment, not an escalation. | :07:50. | :07:55. | |
In Buenos Aires, a few dozen left- wing protesters Ed their fury at a | :07:55. | :07:59. | |
city landmark once known as the English clock tower. -- they aired | :07:59. | :08:08. | |
their fury. This protester condemned the presence of what he | :08:08. | :08:12. | |
called the pirate Prince William, and a British bank was pelted with | :08:12. | :08:22. | |
paint. The defiance of the islanders is shaped by memory. For | :08:22. | :08:26. | |
many it is a living, vital thing that men came from 9000 miles away | :08:26. | :08:30. | |
to win back their right for self- determination, and many of them | :08:30. | :08:35. | |
died for it. And that experience underpins Britain's position, that | :08:35. | :08:39. | |
whatever Argentina's claim to these islands, the rights of the people | :08:39. | :08:46. | |
who live here to choose their own destiny remain non-negotiable. Port | :08:46. | :08:50. | |
Stanley is as British as fish and chips, Sussex in the South Atlantic, | :08:50. | :08:53. | |
loyal to the Crown through generations. No one here shares the | :08:53. | :08:58. | |
view that Prince William's arrival is just another deployment. To the | :08:58. | :09:03. | |
islanders, it is a restatement of their bond with Britain. He is a | :09:03. | :09:06. | |
very important member of the Royal Family so it means a lot to the | :09:06. | :09:10. | |
islanders that Britain believe that he should be here in the Falklands | :09:10. | :09:14. | |
serving in our defence. Falklands are forging ahead with | :09:14. | :09:18. | |
oil exploration, to the fury of Argentina. But no one here cares | :09:18. | :09:23. | |
much Argentine sensibilities. they feel it is a provocation to | :09:23. | :09:27. | |
them, that is their view. The UK Government has no doubt about the | :09:27. | :09:31. | |
Falklands sovereignty, being British, and no doubt about the | :09:31. | :09:33. | |
right of the Falklands government to explore for offshore mineral | :09:33. | :09:39. | |
resources. 1982 casts its shadow, for what happened here made this | :09:39. | :09:42. | |
distant, difficult place still more steadfast in its enduring | :09:42. | :09:49. | |
Britishness. Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, | :09:49. | :09:52. | |
will find out tomorrow morning if he is to be charged over claims | :09:52. | :09:56. | |
that his former wife accepted speeding penalty points on his | :09:56. | :09:59. | |
behalf. The Director of Public Prosecutions will make a statement | :09:59. | :10:04. | |
on the decision. Chris Huhne has consistently denied the accusations. | :10:04. | :10:09. | |
Essex police have been examine the allegations dating back to 2003 for | :10:09. | :10:12. | |
several months. Let's get the latest from Vicki Young at | :10:12. | :10:15. | |
Westminster. How do you see the potential impact of what happens | :10:15. | :10:19. | |
tomorrow? It could be very damaging for the coalition. These | :10:19. | :10:25. | |
allegations have been hanging over Chris Huhne for several months. The | :10:25. | :10:28. | |
Director of Public Prosecutions has called in the TV cameras tomorrow | :10:28. | :10:32. | |
morning at 10am to explain the decision. It is unusual but not | :10:32. | :10:36. | |
unprecedented for him to do this. It does not give much of a clue as | :10:36. | :10:42. | |
to which way the decision has gone. I think the brown cock -- the Crown | :10:42. | :10:44. | |
Prosecution Service will be keen to explain their decision, whichever | :10:44. | :10:49. | |
way it has gone, because it is such a high-profile figure. The dilemma | :10:49. | :10:52. | |
for the coalition if charges are brought against Chris Huhne is | :10:52. | :10:55. | |
whether he remains in the Cabinet will stop me claim has hinted there | :10:55. | :10:58. | |
have been discussions with civil servants and the Prime Minister | :10:58. | :11:02. | |
about all of this. If he has to stand down it will be a blow for | :11:02. | :11:07. | |
the Liberal Democrats. He is a senior figure and highly regarded | :11:07. | :11:10. | |
among grassroots Liberal Democrats as someone who is willing to stand | :11:10. | :11:13. | |
up to the Conservatives. He has always denied he has done anything | :11:13. | :11:17. | |
wrong and has been confident he will not be prosecuted. Tomorrow at | :11:17. | :11:23. | |
9am he will find out whether he was right or not. | :11:23. | :11:27. | |
A pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca has announced it is to cut 7300 | :11:27. | :11:31. | |
jobs worldwide. The firm employs 8000 people in the UK and unions | :11:31. | :11:36. | |
claim up to 350 jobs are expected to go at the company's Alderley | :11:36. | :11:41. | |
Park site in Cheshire. William Hague has called for more | :11:41. | :11:45. | |
action to tackle the terrorist threat from Somalia, as he became | :11:45. | :11:48. | |
the first British Foreign Secretary to visit there in 20 years. His | :11:48. | :11:52. | |
arrival in the capital, Mogadishu, signals the start of a major | :11:53. | :11:56. | |
diplomatic push to restore stability in the country. He | :11:56. | :12:01. | |
described Somalia as the world's most failed state. | :12:01. | :12:04. | |
The football manager Harry Redknapp has angrily denied telling lies at | :12:04. | :12:07. | |
his trial for tax evasion, but he did admit misleading a journalist | :12:07. | :12:11. | |
who had asked him about money paid into an offshore bank account when | :12:11. | :12:15. | |
he was manager at Portsmouth. Mr Redknapp and his former chairman at | :12:15. | :12:20. | |
the club, Milan Mandaric, both deny the charges against them. This | :12:20. | :12:26. | |
report contains flash photography. Accused of setting up an offshore | :12:26. | :12:30. | |
bank account to avoid paying tax, Harry Redknapp arrived for a second | :12:30. | :12:34. | |
day in the witness box. He denies that a payment in Monaco was a | :12:34. | :12:40. | |
bonus for the transfer of Peter Crouch. Evidence has been utterly | :12:40. | :12:45. | |
misleading, said the prosecution. Absolutely not, replied Redknapp. | :12:45. | :12:48. | |
The court heard that Harry Redknapp had first found out about the | :12:48. | :12:51. | |
allegations when he received a phone call from a reporter at the | :12:51. | :12:54. | |
News of the World. He claims that in the recorded conversation which | :12:54. | :13:04. | |
:13:04. | :13:26. | ||
Harry Redknapp was asked about his dog. "I like Rosie. I don't like | :13:26. | :13:32. | |
calling her a dog. She was better than that.". As the cross- | :13:32. | :13:37. | |
examination grew to a close, the at atmosphere became heated. Harry | :13:37. | :13:43. | |
Redknapp was accused of telling a pack of lies. The Tottenham manager | :13:43. | :13:48. | |
said, "You think I would put my hand on the Bible and tell lies. | :13:48. | :13:51. | |
Everything I have told you is the truth, the whole truth and nothing | :13:51. | :13:56. | |
but the truth, so help me God.". The prosecution continued, "Mr | :13:56. | :14:01. | |
Redknapp you have come to this court and twisted your account to | :14:01. | :14:06. | |
get and Mr Mandaric off the hook., "Absolutely Not." Harry Redknapp | :14:06. | :14:11. | |
went on to say, "Give me the Bible back and I will put my hand on it.". | :14:11. | :14:14. | |
The jurors were told they would be sent out to consider their verdicts | :14:14. | :14:17. | |
on Tuesday. Tomorrow the prosecution will give their closing | :14:17. | :14:25. | |
Coming up on tonight's programme: 200 years after the birth of | :14:26. | :14:28. | |
Charles Dickens, new research on how he created the characters in | :14:28. | :14:38. | |
:14:38. | :14:39. | ||
Abnormalities in the brain may make some people more likely to become | :14:39. | :14:41. | |
drug addicts according to scientists at the University of | :14:41. | :14:47. | |
Cambridge. Experts have been unsure whether drugs changed the wiring of | :14:47. | :14:50. | |
the brain or if drug addicts' brains were wired differently in | :14:50. | :14:54. | |
the first place. But the new study suggests that conditions can be | :14:54. | :15:03. | |
inherited which make addiction more It is one of the great scurges of | :15:03. | :15:07. | |
the modern world, addiction to drugs. But what determines who gets | :15:07. | :15:12. | |
hooked? New research offers an answer. The study focused on | :15:12. | :15:17. | |
addicts and their siblings like Sophia and Teresa. Brought up | :15:17. | :15:21. | |
together in the same troubled family, they describe how one | :15:21. | :15:27. | |
stayed clean and the other didn't. I was about 19 and it was the | :15:27. | :15:34. | |
people I was hanging around with, the influences so, but it wasn't, I | :15:34. | :15:38. | |
didn't get into the crack until I was 30. | :15:38. | :15:43. | |
I'm not holier than thou, but I think I just already knew early on | :15:43. | :15:47. | |
in my life that there were certain things I wanted to do and wanted to | :15:47. | :15:53. | |
achieve. The study involved scanning 50 addicts and their | :15:53. | :16:00. | |
siblings. Teresa took part for her sister's sake. The aim to see, if | :16:00. | :16:04. | |
there are clue to say addiction in the brain and the results are | :16:04. | :16:09. | |
surprising. What is revealed by the research is potentially useful. The | :16:09. | :16:14. | |
siblings of addicts and the addicts themselves share a similar pattern | :16:14. | :16:18. | |
of abnormalities in their brains. Physical evidence that you can | :16:18. | :16:24. | |
inherit, conditions that put you at risk. The scans show how this works | :16:24. | :16:29. | |
inside the brain. The area governing emotion is bigger than | :16:29. | :16:33. | |
normal in addicts than their siblings. Another part involved in | :16:33. | :16:38. | |
habit forming is also larger than usual. The connections that manage | :16:38. | :16:43. | |
self-control are relatively inefficient. So how do the siblings | :16:43. | :16:46. | |
avoid addiction? These brothers and sisters who | :16:46. | :16:50. | |
don't have addiction problems, what they can tell us is how they | :16:50. | :16:56. | |
managed to overcome these problems. What they do in their daily life, | :16:56. | :17:00. | |
how they manage self-control in a a daily life. | :17:00. | :17:05. | |
Sophia and Teresa were tested for self-control, they share | :17:05. | :17:11. | |
abnormalities in their brains, but turned out different differently. | :17:11. | :17:15. | |
The long-term goal is to prevent addiction. | :17:15. | :17:19. | |
This study is one step along the way of identifying people who are | :17:19. | :17:22. | |
at risk and at this stage though, it doesn't give us any answers as | :17:22. | :17:28. | |
to how we can intervene. So emeetate benefits reason likely, | :17:28. | :17:34. | |
but having a clearer idea of who is most vulnerable to help steer them | :17:34. | :17:44. | |
An inquiry has been ordered into the tax affairs of top civil | :17:44. | :17:47. | |
servants. It comes after an investigation by BBC Newsnight | :17:47. | :17:50. | |
which revealed that the chief executive of the Student Loans | :17:50. | :17:52. | |
Company was paid through his private company which meant he | :17:52. | :18:00. | |
could avoid normal tax deductions. Civil servants in Whitehall get | :18:00. | :18:04. | |
paid by the taxpayer. How how much tax should they have to pay | :18:04. | :18:07. | |
themselves? Over the last two years, this official, Ed Lester, has been | :18:07. | :18:13. | |
able to avoid paying tens of thousands of pounds in tax legally. | :18:13. | :18:18. | |
In 2010 he was appointed by David Willetts to head up the Student | :18:18. | :18:23. | |
Loans Company. But It has emerged that ministers and officials agreed | :18:23. | :18:28. | |
to pay Mr Leicester �182,000 for his work in Glasgow, but the salary | :18:28. | :18:35. | |
was paid into a company based in London. A move that meant he could | :18:35. | :18:39. | |
pay less tax. Today, the minister who signed off the salary was | :18:39. | :18:43. | |
forced to the Commons to eat humble pie. | :18:43. | :18:46. | |
He said Mr Leicester will pay income tax and national insurance | :18:46. | :18:50. | |
like the rest of us and accountants will scour Whitehall to make sure | :18:50. | :18:52. | |
no other officials were paid this way. | :18:52. | :18:56. | |
At a time when we have to pull in the same direction to tackle the | :18:56. | :18:59. | |
country's financial problems, it is essential we pay our full and fair | :18:59. | :19:03. | |
share, that is why I have taken this action to make sure Government | :19:03. | :19:06. | |
departments don't support tax avoidance schemes. | :19:06. | :19:09. | |
For MPs on all sides, that wasn't good enough. | :19:09. | :19:14. | |
Those working at the front-line in the public sector will find these | :19:14. | :19:17. | |
revelations obscene. At a time when the economy is flat | :19:18. | :19:21. | |
lining and students are facing a tripling of of student fees the | :19:21. | :19:26. | |
news that ministers approved the contract of a senior official shows | :19:26. | :19:32. | |
just how out-of-touch they are. It is not clear who approved Mr | :19:32. | :19:36. | |
Leicester's tax deal. Documents obtained by the BBC appear to show | :19:36. | :19:39. | |
Mr Willetts, the universe minister, was aware of the deal and he | :19:39. | :19:43. | |
claimed that Mr Alexander at the Treasury had approved it. | :19:43. | :19:47. | |
Mr Alexander says he wasn't aware of the tax benefits. Either way, | :19:47. | :19:52. | |
students were not impressed. The idea that the Government are | :19:52. | :19:55. | |
telling us they can't afford Education Maintenance Allowance and | :19:56. | :20:00. | |
can't afford to fund our universities, but they can come to | :20:00. | :20:03. | |
arrangements with senior public servants to avoid tax. That's a | :20:03. | :20:07. | |
kick in the teeth for us. The inquiry will fin out how many | :20:07. | :20:11. | |
more officials in Westminster will have similar tax deals, deals that | :20:11. | :20:15. | |
are embarrassing for a Government that is trying to tackle tax | :20:15. | :20:21. | |
avoidance, a Government that claims The editor of the Times, James | :20:21. | :20:24. | |
Harding, is to be recalled to the Leveson Inquiry to answer questions | :20:24. | :20:31. | |
about alleged hacking of emails at the paper. The inquiry has been | :20:31. | :20:34. | |
told that a Times journalist accessed the emails of a police | :20:34. | :20:37. | |
internet blogger. The editor of the Sun, Dominic Mohan, has also been | :20:37. | :20:39. | |
recalled to answer further questions. | :20:39. | :20:42. | |
In Serbia rescue services are trying to reach thousands of people | :20:42. | :20:45. | |
trapped in remote villages by the snow. The authorities are using | :20:45. | :20:49. | |
helicopters and sledges to try to supply food. Much of Europe is | :20:49. | :20:53. | |
still in the grip of the extreme cold weather and temperatures have | :20:53. | :21:00. | |
fallen as low as minus 30 Celsius as Luisa Baldini tells us. | :21:00. | :21:04. | |
When it is as cold as in Romania, a walk by the sea becomes a walk on | :21:04. | :21:08. | |
the sea and in the port, forget boats, bobbing about, here they are | :21:08. | :21:14. | |
stuck fast in the frozen waters. Where the sea is moving, it does so | :21:14. | :21:20. | |
with one big slushy swell. It may look pretty in places, but these | :21:20. | :21:27. | |
Arctic conditions are causing misery and deaths across Europe. | :21:27. | :21:32. | |
Temperatures have plunged to below minus 20 Celsius and the snow is up | :21:32. | :21:37. | |
to five meters deep. 11,000 people in rural areas are cut off. The | :21:37. | :21:44. | |
most desperate are rescued by helicopter. | :21:44. | :21:53. | |
Or if they can get access, by snow mobile. | :21:53. | :21:58. | |
Workers at a fish farm cut holes in the ice, to allow oxygen into the | :21:58. | :22:04. | |
water. The blast of icy water has been feeding in from Siberia and | :22:04. | :22:08. | |
enveloped much of Europe. We are on the edge of this cold | :22:08. | :22:11. | |
weather across Europe at the moment, but our temperatures are struggling | :22:11. | :22:15. | |
and the problem for the week we have milder air trying to come in | :22:15. | :22:20. | |
from the Atlantic as that bumps up against the cold air, we are likely | :22:20. | :22:23. | |
to see snow. The Pennines was covered today. | :22:24. | :22:27. | |
This is high ground so it is not unusual, but other parts of the | :22:27. | :22:32. | |
country where it has been mild may see similar scenes come the weekend. | :22:32. | :22:37. | |
Warmer climes than our own have succumbed to the snow. This was | :22:37. | :22:47. | |
:22:47. | :22:49. | ||
Marseille today, the French Riviera New historical research on the | :22:50. | :22:52. | |
novelist Charles Dickens suggests he based some of the characters in | :22:52. | :22:55. | |
his books on people living around him in London. It's claimed that | :22:55. | :22:58. | |
Oliver Twist was based on the residents of one particular street | :22:58. | :23:01. | |
and that other stories were based on those living nearby. Will | :23:01. | :23:03. | |
Gompertz has been looking at the new research and Dickens' enduring | :23:04. | :23:06. | |
appeal. Charles Dickens is one of the great writers. The academics | :23:06. | :23:09. | |
are convinced so are the public. His books have never been out of | :23:10. | :23:13. | |
print. There are many reasons to admire his work. The style, the | :23:13. | :23:18. | |
characters, and the subject matter. Few authors documented their time | :23:18. | :23:21. | |
more incisively than Charles Dickens. Now a a new book claims to | :23:21. | :23:26. | |
reveal the extent to which he was influenced by by his surroundings. | :23:26. | :23:31. | |
This is a street in Central London which the new book claims was | :23:31. | :23:37. | |
Dickens inspiration for when he was writing Oliver Twist, he did once | :23:37. | :23:40. | |
live here at the top and he would have walked up and down this road | :23:40. | :23:44. | |
doing his favourite thing, which was observing every day life with | :23:44. | :23:49. | |
his attuned ear for dialogue and his eye for detail. This building, | :23:49. | :23:52. | |
for example, was a workhouse when he lived in the street, not unlike | :23:52. | :23:58. | |
the one he writes about in Oliver Twist. The historian who wrote and | :23:58. | :24:01. | |
researched the book, took me on a tour of the area, pointing out more | :24:01. | :24:07. | |
of the people and places on which Dickens drew. | :24:07. | :24:13. | |
I found Dan Weller, like Sam Weller and I found William sciction and | :24:13. | :24:17. | |
that's the -- Sykes and that's the villain in Oliver Twist. | :24:17. | :24:24. | |
This series is set on a fictional council estate in Manchester. It | :24:24. | :24:27. | |
has socialal real -- social realism at its heart. | :24:27. | :24:32. | |
No surprise then that its writer is a Dickens fan. | :24:32. | :24:40. | |
He was making the world want to read about the state of the British | :24:40. | :24:47. | |
under class. That's what he did. That's an act of genius. You compel | :24:47. | :24:52. | |
somebody to read what they most don't want to read about. It stole | :24:52. | :24:55. | |
the nation's heart through fiction and I think fiction is one of the | :24:55. | :25:00. | |
finest ways of telling the truth. Please sir, I want some more. | :25:00. | :25:06. | |
The author of a recent Dickens biography reveals that was his | :25:06. | :25:08. | |
great skill. He was a great reporter. He began | :25:08. | :25:16. | |
as a reporter so he combines, I think, the acute perceptive eye of | :25:16. | :25:21. | |
a reporter with a poetic imagination. So he embroiders upon | :25:21. | :25:27. | |
reality through language. And that is absolutely marvellous. | :25:27. | :25:32. | |
And it is that gift which has given Dickens his enduring appeal to | :25:32. | :25:37. | |
readers and writers alike. He exposed the universal appeals of | :25:37. | :25:42. | |
life still as true today as they were 200 years ago when he was born. | :25:42. | :25:46. | |
Newsnight is starting in a few minutes on BBC Two and they will be | :25:46. | :25:50. |